UC-NRLF 


RIGHT 


OF     THE     BIBLE 


OUR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS, 


GEORGE  B.  CHEEVER,  D.D. 

h 


NEW  YORK: 
ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 

No.    285    BROADWAY. 

1854. 


C4 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853,  by 

ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


STEREOTYPED   BY  PRINTED   BY 

THOMAS   B.  SMITH,  B.    O.  JENKINS, 

216  William  St,  N.  Y.  114  Nassan  St. 


THE  argument  in  these  pages  was  constructed 
with  special  reference  to  some  labored  and  plausi 
ble  endeavors  to  commend  to  the  Christian  com 
munity  the  banishment  of  the  Bible  and  religious 
instruction  from  our  Common  Schools.  These  en 
deavors  are  made  with  reference  to  the  demands  of 
a  portion  of  the  leaders  of  a  particular  sect,  and 
for  a  temporary  purpose ;  it  is  the  priests  of  Ro 
manism,  and  not  the  common  people,  nor  their  chil 
dren,  who  would  break  up  our  common  school  sys 
tem  for  sectarian  purposes,  and  shut  out  the  light 
and  influence  of  the  Word  of  God. 

It  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  that  we  are  laying 
the  foundations  of  many  generations.  Our  school- 
system,  and  the  principles  on  which  we  ground  it, 
or  by  which  we  alter  it,  must  not  be  contemplated 
through  the  eye-glasses  of  a  present  short-sighted 


IV  PKEFACE. 

sect,  or  political  party,  or  temporary  prejudice,  but 
through  the  vista  of  a  hundred  generations,  and  a 
thousand  years.  To-day  indeed  we  legislate  for 
only  twenty-five  millions ;  to-morrow  for  a  hundred 
millions.  Yet  the  project  is  up  for  legislating  the 
Bible  and  religion  out  of  our  schools,  and  thus  pro 
viding  for  the  training  of  the  hundreds  of  millions 
of  the  future  generations  of  this  country. 

The  question  is  not  for  ourselves,  but  for  our 
children,  and  our  children's  children.  The  question 
is  not  local,  but  a  question  for  the  whole  country. 
It  is  argued  on  principles  of  exclusion  on  the  one 
side,  that  apply  everywhere  ;  and  on  principles  of 
religion  and  of  right  for  the  human  race,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  apply  everywhere.  If  we,  in  this 
generation,  get  the  Bible  and  religion  effectually  out 
of  our  schools,  ignoring  it,  or  legalizing  its  exclu 
sion,  and  putting  the  ban  of  sectarian  ignominy 
upon  it,  another  generation  will  not  be  likely  to  re 
store  it  to  its  rightful  place,  or  to  redeem  them 
selves  from  the  fetters  of  this  dreadful  mistake. 
There  are  those  who  would  establish  in  our  school- 
system  the  thunder  of  the  Vatican,  with  an  Index 
Expurgatorius  for  our  whole  school  literature  ;  and 
even  good  men  are  fearfully  influenced  by  their 
sophistry. 


PKEFACE.  V 

"  It  is  a  question,"  said  Mr.  Webster,  "  which,  in 
its  decision,  is  to  influence  the  happiness,  the  tem 
poral  and  the  eternal  welfare,  of  one  hundred  mil 
lions  of  human  beings,  alive  and  to  be  born,  in  this 
land.  Its  decision  will  give  a  hue  to  the  apparent 
character  of  our  institutions  ;  it  will  be  a  comment 
on  their  spirit  to  the  whole  Christian  world."  "  I 
insist  that  there  is  no  charity,  and  can  be  no  char 
ity,  in  that  system  of  instruction  from  which  Chris 
tianity  is  excluded."  We  commend  to  the  earn 
est  consideration  of  the  reader,  the  powerful  argu 
ment  of  Mr.  Webster,  commencing  on  page  241  of 
this  volume. 

The  public  mind  is  beginning  to  be  awakened  on 
this  subject.  While  these  sheets  are  passing  through 
the  press,  we  are  glad  to  notice  an  able  article  in 
the  New  York  Observer,  commenting  on  the  recent 
extraordinary  decision  of  the  State  Superintendent, 
founded  on  the  complaint  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
priest,  in  which  the  facts  of  the  case  have  been 
shown  to  have  been  entirely  misrepresented.  Yet 
the  Superintendent,  on  an  ex  parte  view,  has  issued 
a  judgment  doing  great  injustice  to  individuals,  and 
assuming,  contrary  to  the  custom  and  special  and 
common  law  of  our  school  system,  that  neither  the 
Bible  may  be  read,  nor  religious  instructions  given. 


Vl  PREFACE. 

To  say  that  they  must  not  be  given,  nor  prayer  be 
offered,  in  school  hours,  is  to  banish  them  entirely. 
The  act  is  despotic,  unauthorized,  illegal.  "  Such  a 
position,"  says  the  author  of  the  argument  in  the 
Observer,  "  I  hold  to  be  not  only  unsustained  by 
any  law,  but  to  be  at  war  with  the  spirit  of  our 
statutes,  with  the  policy  of  our  State,  and  with  the 
best  interests  of  our  country." 

From  the  history,  nature,  and  laws  of  our  Com 
mon  School  System,  as  developed  in  this  volume, 
the  reader  will  be  able  to  demonstrate  the  perfect 
correctness  of  this  statement.  The  decision  of  the 
State  Superintendent,  and  some  of  the  views  else 
where  set  forth  under  like  authority,  tend,  accord 
ing  to  the  argument  of  Mr.  Webster,  to  "  under 
mine  and  oppose  the  whole  Christian  religion,"  and 
consequently  the  common  law  of  the  land.  "  In 
all  cases,"  Mr.  Webster  says,  "there  is  nothing 
that  we  look  for  with  more  certainty,  than  this  gen 
eral  principle,  THAT  CHRISTIANITY  is  PART  OF  THE 

LAW  OF   THE  LAND." 


PAGE 

Preface 3 

Introduction 9 

The  Argument  against  the  Scriptures  driven  to  its 

Absurdities         .         .         /  .         .13 

The  Christian's  Rights  of  Conscience  .         .  33 

» The  Bible  not  Sectarian    .         .         .         .         .  37 

Consequences  of  the  Reasoning  for  the  Exclusion  of 
the  Bible,  on  the  ground  of  its  being  an  Op 
pression  to  use  it  '".63 

The  Just  Principle  of  Settlement.     Rights  of  the 

Majority 68 

Supreme  Authority  and  Right  of  the  Bible.      Truth 

more  rightful  than  Error         .         .         .         .  72 

-  Right  of  Religious  Education  by  the  State.     Opin 
ion  of  Mr.  Webster     .         .         .         .         .         .90 

The  Bible  the  Common  Inheritance  of  the  World. 

Opinion  of  Justice  Story          .         .         .  96 

Fatal  Policy  of  the  Exclusion  of  Religion.  Opinion 
of  Washington,  and  of  the  Framers  of  the  Con 
stitution  ........  104 

The  Essential  Requisites  in  a  Common  School  Edu 
cation.  Case  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  .  .  110 

Argument  from  the  Nature  of  an  Oath      .         .         .113 

Infidel  Aspect  and  Tendency  of  the  Exclusion  of  Re 
ligion  from  a  Common  School  Education       .         124 
>  Argument  from  the  Necessity  of  Religious  Self-gov 
ernment     182 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Illustrations    from    Scotland.      Argument  by  Dr. 

Candlish.     Opinion  of  Bunsen        .         .        .         139 
Presentation  of  the  subject  by  John  Foster       .         .     150 
Argument  from  the  Nature  of  Moral  Science        .         167 
Objection  that  the   Romanists   are    excluded,  An 
swered         164 

Appropriateness  and  Beauty  of  the  Word  of  God  in 

our  Common  Schools 174 

Importance  of  the  Bible  and  of  Religious  Instruction 

in  the  Female  Schools.     Its  interdiction  odious     182 
Necessity  of  a  Christian  Common  School  Education 

for  a  Living  and  Progressive  Civilization  .     194 

Argument  from  the  History  of  Common  Schools  and 

the  School  Statutes,  in  New  York          .         .         199 
Report  of  the  Commissioners,  and  Foundation  of  the 

System  by  the  State 205 

Beginning  of  the  War  against  the  Scriptures  .  215 
Establishment  of  the  Free  School  System.  Renewal 

of  the  War  against  the  Scriptures  .         .         .         224^ 
Argument  of  Daniel  Webster  against  the  plan  of 

education  without  the  Bible  :  241 

Singular  Example  of  Sectarian  Legislation  against 

the  Christian  Sabbath 257 

Common  School  System  of  Connecticut  .  .  .  269 
Common  School  System  of  Massachusetts  .  .  274 
Board  of  National  Popular  Education  .  .  .279 
Custom  and  Opinion  of  Massachusetts  .  .  .  285 
Opinion  and  Practice  in  Pennsylvania  and  New 

Jersey 293 

Conclusion  300 


WITHIN  a  few  years,  and  at  the  instigation  of  the 
sect  of  Roman  Catholics,  a  powerful  effort  has  been 
made,  and  is  still  making,  to  divide  and  break  up 
our  system  of  free  common  schools.  The  effort  is 
to  be  continued  and  urged  with  all  the  energy, 
authority,  and  perseverance  of  the  papal  power  in 
our  country. 

Connected  with  this  effort,  and  fundamental  to  it, 
is  the  attempted  exclusion  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Christian  religion  from  our  whole  system  of  free 
common  school  instruction.  To  advance  this  effort, 
arguments  have  been  constructed  against  the  sacred 
Scriptures  as  a  sectarian  book,  and  much  plausible 
sophistry  has  been  spread  through  the  community, 
to  the  effect  that  justice  to  the  Roman  Catholics  re 
quires  that  we  should,  for  their  sake,  exclude  the 


X  INTKODUCTION. 

Bible  at  their  will,  and  give  to  them  the  power  of 
expurgating  the  school  literature  according  to  their 
sectarian  canons,  precisely  after  the  type  of  that 
despotic  power  which  is  wielded  in  the  Vatican. 
This  would  be  to  place  every  other  sect  in  the  com 
munity  in  subordination  to  theirs,  and  to  legislate 
in  behalf  of  their  conscience,  and  against  the  con 
science  of  all  Christian  societies  and  persons,  that 
reverence  the  word  of  God,  and  claim  the  right  of 
its  presence  and  influence  in  the  system  of  common 
school  education. 

We  propose  to  show  that  such  a  course  would 
be  contrary  to  Divine  law,  and  to  all  just  and  equal 
human  law ;  contrary  to  the  obligations  of  benevo 
lence  ;  contrary  to  the  rights,  and  injurious  to  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  country ;  contrary  to  the  prin 
ciples  of  civil  and  religious  freedom ;  contrary  to 
long  settled  Christian  precedent  and  custom,  and 
to  the  expressed  will,  wishes,  and  judgment  of  the 
Christian  community;  contrary  to  our  best  local 
statutes;  contrary  to  the  decisions  of  the  wisest 
statesmen,  the  most  illustrious  patriots,  and  the 
most  learned  jurists  of  our  land ;  and  contrary  to 
the  history  and  fundamental  principles  and  provis 
ions  of  our  free  school  system,  as  established  by 
the  State  and  supported  by  the  people. 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

We  propose  to  show,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
while  it  is  essential  to  forbid  sectarianism  in  the 
public  schoolsjpt  is  as  essential  to  bring  them  under 
the  teachings  and  power  of  true  religion ;  that  re 
ligion  should  not  be  driven  out  under  cover  of  repel 
ling  sectarianism  ;  that  it  is  as  clearly  the  right  and 
duty  of  the  State  to  instruct  the  children  in  religious, 
as  it  is  in  secular  truth ;  keeping  out  sectarianism 
by  keeping  in  the  Bible,  and  preventing  bigotry  by 
making  religion  free,  and  bringing  all  the  children 
under  the  same  celestial  light ;  that  the  Bible  in  our 
schools  is  the  birth-right  of  all  the  children,  but  es 
pecially  of  those  who  can  have  no  other  education  but 
such  as  the  State  gives  them  ;  that  the  government  is 
bound,  in  justice  to  the  overwhelming  Christian  ma 
jority  whom  it  taxes  for  the  support  of  common 
schools,  to  place  the  Bible  and  the  common  truths 
of  Christianity  in  the  course  of  free  common  school 
education  ;  that  this  is  a  right  of  the  Christian  con 
science  whicn  cannot  justly  be  refused  at  the  de 
mand  of  any  sect ;  that  it  is  essential  to  the  security 
of  our  laws  and  institutions,  and  to  the  preservation 
both  of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  that  its  exclu 
sion  would  alienate  the  affections  and  support  of 
the  whole  Christian  community  from  the  common 
school  system ;  that  education  in  our  country  has 


INTRODUCTION. 


been  grounded  in  the  Bible  from  the  beginning, 
and  that  its  banishment  would  be  a  measure  of  de 
fiance  to  the  Supreme  Being,  and  of  inevitable  dan- 
ger  and  disaster  to  the  republic. 


§rptefi!  against  % 
to  its 


THE  right  to  teach  the  Scriptures,  and  to  have 
them  read  in  the  public  schools,  is  founded  on 
the  fact  that  they  are  the  Word  of  God  for  the 
instruction  of  mankind.  A  revelation  from 
Heaven  for  all  mankind  is  the  property  of  no 
sect,  and  cannot  be  called  sectarian  ;  conse 
quently  no  sect  has  any  right  of  conscience  to 
object  against  it.  If  the  introduction  of  it  is 
contrary  to  conscience,  if  the  reading  of  it  is 
an  act  of  intolerance  towards  those,  or  the  con 
science  of  those,  who  object  against  it,  then 
the  promulgation  of  it  as  an  authoritative  rev 
elation,  is  an  intrusion  upon  conscience,  and 
by  this  argument  God  himself  is  represented 
as  doing  violence  to  conscience  in  enforcing 
his  own  Word  upon  all  men,  on  pain  of  eternal 
penalties  if  they  do  not  receive  it, 


14  ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE  BIBLE, 

The  Deist  and  the  Atheist  have  their  rights 
of  conscience ;  and  as  they  both  claim  consci 
entiously  to  deny  that  there  is  any  such  thing 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  and  one  party  that 
there  is  a  God,  they  may  claim  also  that  the 
use  of  any  book  in  the  common  schools  that 
teaches  the  being  of  a  God,  or  admits  the  ex 
istence  of  a  revelation  from  him,  does  violence 
to  their  conscience.  The  use  of  Paley's 
Natural  Theology,  or  of  any  reading-book 
that  has  a  single  selection  from  it,  or  any 
work  that  refers  to  the  Word  of  God  as  are  ve- 
lation,  or  any  lesson  that  inculcates  any  truth 
or  moral  precept  on  the  authority  of  God's 
Word,  or  on  the  ground  of  God's  perfections, 
is  as  truly  a  violation  of  conscience,  as  the  use 
of  the  Bible. 

If  it  be  asserted  that  the  use  of  the  Bible  is 
an  infraction  of  religious  liberty,  then,  on  pre 
cisely  the  same  grounds,  only  with  greater 
force  and  directness,  it  may  be  urged  that  the 
use  of  Murray's  Sequel,  with  its  admirable 
extracts  from  Addison,  Johnson.  Beattie, 
Blair,  Young,  and  other  writers,  is  an  infrac 
tion  of  religious  liberty ;  for  these  extracts  not 


"  REDUCTIO   AD  ABSUEDUM.  15 

only  refer  to  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God, 
and  the  best  of  all  books,  but  even  assert  and 
enforce  its  peculiar  teachings,  with  references 
to  it,  and  quotations. from  it ;  so  that  the  as 
serted  rule  that  a  perfect  religious  liberty  re 
quires  that  an  impartial  system  of  public  edu 
cation  should  be  free  from  any  religious  bias, 
is  set  at  naught  and  contravened  in  the  most 
pointed  manner.  In  fact,  Divine  Providence 
has  so  wrought  in  the  production  of  our  liter 
ature,  that  it  would  be  a  task  almost  imprac 
ticable  to  construct  a  single  good  reading-book 
from  writers  of  the  best  style,  and  in  so  doing 
to  exclude  the  element  of  religion,  or  a  re 
ligious  bias,  as  founded  on  the  sanctions  of 
God's  "Word.  Morality  itself  cannot  be  taught 
without  Christianity,  unless  you  shut  up  the 
manufacturers  of  your  school  books  to  Pagan 
and  Mohammedan  literature.  But  all  asser 
tion  and  teaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  as  being 
the  Word  of  God,  all  reference  to  it  as  a  Di 
vine  authoritative  revelation,  all  appeal  to  it, 
or  to  God's  will,  as  the  foundation  or  sanction 
of  moral  truth,  is,  by  this  pretended  rule  of 
conscience  and  of  religious  liberty,  intolerant 


16          ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLE, 

and  wrong,  an  infringment  of  the  rights  of  in 
dividual  consciences. 

Suppose  I  am  a  conscientious  Deist.  I  de 
sire,  as  I  pay  my  tax  for  the  support  of  the 
public  schools,  to  avail  myself  of  the  privi 
lege  for  which  I  am  taxed,  for  the  education 
of  my  children.  I  present  myself  with  them 
at  the'  door  of  a  free  public  school,  but  am  met 
by  a  committee  with  a  book  in  their  hands  de 
signed  to  teach  the  art  of  reading,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  form  the  taste,  style,  and  habit  of 
thought  in  the  pupil,  in  the  best  possible  man 
ner.  That  book  contains  a  section  on  the  ex 
cellence  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  very 
title  is  an  offense  to  my  conscience.  But 
when,  farther  than  this,  I  find  the  Scriptures 
referred  to  as  beyond  all  question  the  Word  of 
God,  a  revelation  from  Heaven  for  our  guid 
ance,  with  an  absolute  denial  that  the  soul  can 
be  saved  without  it ;  and  when  I  find  perhaps 
in  some  other  section,  an  attractive  and  beau 
tiful  description  of  the  evidences  of  Christian 
ity,  or  the  grounds  on  which  it  is  proved  con 
clusively  that  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God  ; 
I  say  to  myself,  this  is  an  outrage  on  my 


REDUCTIO  AD   ABSUKDUM.  17 

rights,  a  violation  of  the  first  principles  of  re 
ligious  liberty.  I  cannot  suffer  my  children 
to  be  educated  at  a  school  where  the  instruc 
tions  I  give  them  at  home  receive  the  lie, 
where  they  are  taught  that  all  that  I  have 
taught  them  is  false. 

But  the  committee  tell  me  :  sir,  this  book  is 
one  of  the  best  class  books  in  our  Public  Shcool 
System,  admitted  to  be  so  by  all,  and  has  been 
from  time  immemorial,  or  ever  since  its  com 
pilation,  in  constant  use  without  the  slightest 
objection.  And  unless  you  will  consent  to 
have  your  children  instructed  from  this  book, 
they  cannot  enter ;  for  it  would  be  fatal  to  all 
order  and  authority  in  the  school,  if  the  pupils 
are  permitted  at  every  freak  of  opinion  in 
their  parents,  to  transgress  the  appointed  dis 
cipline,  or  refuse  the  accustomed  lessons. 

"  Well,"  I  answer,  "  this  is  an  oppression  of 
my  conscience.  I  would  rather  have  the 
Word  of  God  itself  read,  or  what  you  call  the 
Word  of  God,  than  these  alluring  praises  of 
it,  and  pretended  demonstrations  of  its  divine 
origin."  And  I  have  the  right  of  it,  if  the  as 
sumed  premises  in  regard  to  any  "  religious 
2* 


18          AKGUMENT   AGAINST   THE   BIBLE, 

bias,"  or  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools,  being  an 
infraction  of  religious  liberty,  are  admitted  as 
correct.  I  am,  in  such  a  case,  deprived  of 
any  common  benefit  of  Government,  because 
of  my  religious  faith.  I  am  a  poor  persecuted 
Deist,  oppressed  in  my  rights  and  liberties, 
as  a  citizen,  by  the  very  Government  which 
I  support  for  the  protection  of  both.  I  am 
shut  out  from  the  public  schools,  although 
compelled  to  pay  for  the  support  of  them,  be 
cause  the  government  in  them  is  daring  to 
assume  the  control  of  my  children's  opinions. 
You  are  intolerant  by  system,  and  you.  com 
pel  me  to  keep  my  children  at  home. 

Now,  on  the  assumed  necessity  of  a  perfect 
indifference  as  to  religious  truth  and  error,  as 
suming  for  belief  and  unbelief,  Theism  and 
Atheism,  Deism  and  Christianity,  the  same  d 
priori  claims,  the  same  authority,  the  same 
right,  or,  in  other  words,  assuming  that  a  sys 
tem  of  public  education,  to  be  impartial,  must 
have  no  religious  bias,  and  that  the  Scriptures, 
as  the  Word  of  God,  must  be  excluded,  and 
absolutely  ignored,  the  argument  of  the  Deist 
is  irresistible. 


REDUCTIO   AD    ABSURDUM.  19 

But  let  us  take  another  case.  Suppose  I 
am  a  Jew,  I  say  to  myself — Well,  in  this 
happy  Eepublic,  and  under  this  unrivalled 
free-school  system,  we  are  at  length  delivered 
from  the  accursed  shackles  of  religious  intoler 
ance  ;  we  are  not  compelled  to  endure  the 
thrusting  of  that  book  of  fables,  the  New 
Testament,  in  our  faces  at  every  turn,  and  to 
pay  for  having  our  children  listen  to  a  lie. 
Here  my  children  can  at  length  be  educated 
without  fear  of  any  religious  bias.  Under  this 
impression,  I  take  them  to  the  nearest  school 
in  the  Ward  or  section  of  the  city  I  inhabit. 
But  one  of  the  very  first  reading  books  put 
into  their  hands  is  a  book  containing  a  section 
abridged  from  Lord  Lyttleton,  entitled  "  The 
truth  of  Christianity  proved  from  the  conver 
sion  of  the  Apostle  Paul."  And  it  is  a  de 
monstration  that  Paul  was  neither  an  impostor 
nor  an  enthusiast,  but  a  sincere  and  learned 
person,  miraculously  converted  from  the 
Jewish  faith,  to  the  faith  of  Christ  crucified, 
and  consequently  that  the  Christian  religion  is 
a  Divine  revelation.  Furthermore,  in  other 
books  the  truth  of  that  religion  is  taken  for 


20          AKGUMENT   AGAINST  THE   BIBLE, 

granted,  and  whole  courses  of  information  and 
of  reasoning  are  built  upon  it,  and  the  name 
of  its  founder,  whom  the  Jews  execrate  as  an 
impostor,  is  often  referred  to,  and  always  with 
the  most  reverential  and  adoring  regard. 
Nay,  the  New  Testament  itself,  which  the 
Jews  teach  their  children  to  abhor,  is  referred 
to  as  divine,  described  in  most  attractive 
terms,  and  beautiful  passages  are  quoted  from 
it.  This  is  an  outrage  on  my  conscience, 
a  violation  of  the  first  principles  of  religious 
liberty.  My  children  are  excluded  from 
schools,  for  the  support  of  which  I  am  taxed, 
or  else  they  are  compelled  to  listen  to  instruc 
tions  and  to  read  lessons  which  would  per 
suade  them  that  their  father  is  a  liar,  and 
the  religion  of  their  fathers  a  deception.  My 
children  are  excluded  from  these  schools  be 
cause  of  my  religious  scruples,  which  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  schools  would  thus  ignore, 
contemn,  or  outrage.  And,  as  a  Jew,  I  am  in 
the  right,  on  the  assumption  that  the  use  of 
the  Bible,  as  the  Word  of  God,  in  our  public 
schools,  or  the  admission  of  any  "religious 
bias,"  is  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  conscience. 


EEDUCTIO   AD   ABSUKDUM.  21 

Let  us  take  yet  another  case.  Suppose  I 
am  a  Mohammedan.  I  teach  my  children  at 
home  that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  that 
Mohammed  is  his  Prophet.  I  teach  them  the 
Koran  as  a  Divine  revelation,  and  carefully 
instruct  them  that  all  men,  except  the  follow 
ers  of  the  Prophet,  are  infidels,  and  that  none 
but  Mohammedans  can  possibly  be  saved. 
But  I  pay  my  tax  for  the  system  of  free  pub 
lic  schools,  and  I  have  a  right  to  have  my 
children  educated  there.  But  the  very  day  I 
place  them  there,  they  bring  me  home,  as  a 
specimen  of  the  public  instruction,  a  reading 
lesson,  entitled  "  The  spirit  and  laws  of 
Christianity  superior  to  those  of  every  other 
religion."  The  very  title  is  an  outrage  on  my 
conscience,  an  intolerant  defiance  of  the 
claims  of  the  religion  of  my  fathers,  the 
proclamation  of  falsehood  as  to  all  the  teach 
ings  I  have  given  to  my  children  at  home. 

But  I  also  find  in  other  lessons  and  sections, 
a  mode  of  teaching  equally  subversive  of  my 
liberty  and  rights.  I  find  the  founder  of 
Christianity  spoken  of  as  a  Divine  Person,  the 
Deliverer  and  Saviour  of  mankind  ;  and  I  find 


22          AKGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLE. 

the  apostolic  teachers  of  that  religion  favorably 
compared  with  Mohammed,  nay,  and  that 
great  prophet  himself,  entitled  the  Impostor  of 
Arabia,  I  find  things  taught,  which,  by  the 
laws  of  the  Koran,  are  blasphemous,  and  pun 
ishable  with  death.  It  is  a  violation  of  re 
ligious  equality  and  liberty  for  the  government 
to  institute  such  schools.  My  own  children 
are  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  education  by 
the  very  religious  scruples  and  convictions 
which  are  thus  ridiculed  and  blasphemed. 
And  for  this  I  am  compelled  to  pay  the  gov 
ernment.  I  am  oppressed  in  my  rights  and 
liberties  as  a  citizen,  by  the  very  government 
which  I  support  for  the  protection  of  both. 
Nay,  my  very  usages  and  precepts  of  domestic 
life,  which  I  teach  as  sacred  to  my  children, 
are  publicly  ridiculed ;  and  under  caver  of  the 
inoffensive  title  of  "  The  Love  of  the  World 
Detected,"  I  find  it  asserted  that  Mohammed 
ans  themselves,  in  spite  of  the  interdiction  of 
their  prophet,  do  everywhere,  in  some  part  or 
another  of  the  unclean  abomination,  eat  pork. 
I  find  a  poem  from  one  of  the  most  esteemed 


KEDUCTIO  AD   ABSURDUM.  23 

writers  of  the  English  language  given  to  my 
child  to  read,  in  which  it  is  affirmed, 

That  conscience  free  from  every  clog, 
Mohammedans  eat  up  the  hog. 

This  man,  again,  is  right,  on  the  assumption 
that  the  recognition  and  use  of  God's  word  is 
an  infraction  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and 
that  an  impartial  system  of  public  education 
must  be  free  from  any  religious  bias.  The 
least  allusion  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world  as  a 
Saviour,  is  a  "religious  bias." 

Yet  again,  we  may  take  the  case  of  a  Chi 
nese,  a  Pagan,  a  Hindoo.  He  is  conscien 
tiously  attached  to  his  own  idolatrous  worship, 
and  teaches- it  to  his  children.  Jupiter,  Vishnu, 
Confutzee,  or  what  not,  he  has  the  shrine  of  do 
mestic  superstition,  and  brings  up  his  children 
in  his  own  faith.  But  he  desires  to  avail  him 
self  for  them,  of  the  benefits  of  the  free  pub 
lic  schools  ;  for  he  has  his  rights  as  a  citizen, 
and  pays  the  government  for  protecting  them. 
But  the  very  first  thing  his  children  meet  with, 
is  perhaps  a  reading-lesson  on  common  things, 
declaring  "that  pure  religion  is  the  worship 


24          AKGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLE. 

paid  to  one  Supreme  Being,  the  Creator  and 
Buler  of  the  Universe,  but  that  men  through 
wickedness  have  become  worshippers  of  false 
gods,  adoring  images  wrought  by  their  own 
hands,  forsaking  the  worship  of  their  maker, 
and  deifying  even  animals  and  vegetables." 
This  lesson  teaches  the  children  of  this  idola 
ter  that  his  own  teachings  are  all  false,  and 
that  the  only  true  religion  is  taught  in  the  life 
and  writings  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  Now, 
this  is  an  incomparably  greater  violation  of 
the  rights  of  conscience,  than  if  a  Eomanist 
had  to  send  his  children  where  the  Word  of 
God  is  recognized  and  read.  It  is,  by  your 
hypothesis,  an  oppression  of  him  by  the  gov 
ernment  that  taxes  him  for  the  support  of  the 
schools.  You  compel  him  to  take  away  his 
children,  and  forego  all  the  benefits  of  a  free 
public  education,  or  else  have  them  instructed 
in  what  he  considers  falsehood.  "His  chil 
dren  are  excluded  from  these  schools,  because 
of  his  religious  scruples,  which  the  govern 
ment  of  the  schools  would  thus  ignore,  con 
temn,  or  outrage."  It  is,  by  your  own  theory, 
an  intolerable  oppression, 


REDUCTIO  AD  ABSUKDUM.  25 

We  will  now  take  but  one  more  case,  and  it 
shall  be  that  of  the  Eomanist.  "We  will  take 
it  as  the  others,  not  now  with  reference  to  the 
"Word  of  God  itself  in  the  schools,  but  to  other 
books,  instructions,  moral  and  historical  les 
sons.  He  pays  his  tax  we  will  suppose,  for 
the  support  of  a  public  free  school  system, 
and  he  wishes  to  avail  himself  of  the  benefit. 
His  priest  has  taught  him,  and  he  and  his 
priest  have  taught  his  children,  that  all  out  of 
the  church  of  Eome  are  heretics  and  infidels, 
doomed  to  everlasting  perdition  ;  that  the  so- 
called  [Reformation  was  a  great  and  dreadful 
schism  in  the  only  true  church,  a  piece  of 
wickedness  set  forward  mainly  by  one  of  the 
worst  men  that  ever  lived,  a  licentious,  pro 
fane,  abandoned,  and  apostate  monk,  Martin 
Luther ;  that  the  Pope  and  the  papal  church 
are  infallible,  and  that  the  Pope's  follow 
ers,  and  they  only,  are  good  Christians. 
But  one  of  the  first  books  put  into  the  hands 
of  his  children  in  the  public  schools,  contains 
a  speech  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  presenting 
the  following  passage — "  In  vain  di^.  he  defend 

the  liberty,  and  establish  the  religion  of  Brit- 
3 


26          ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE  BIBLE. 

ain  against  the  tyranny  of  Rome,  if  these 
worse  than  Popish  cruelties,  and  inquisitorial 
practices,  are  endured  among  us.  To  send 
forth  the  merciless  Indian,  thirsting  for  blood ! 
— against  whom  ? — your  Protestant  brethren ! 
to  lay  waste  their  country,  to  desolate  their 
dwellings,  and  extirpate  their  race  and  name, 
by  the  aid  and  instrumentality  of  these  ungov 
ernable  savages!"  Tyranny  of  Rome,  and 
Popish  cruelties !  These  teachings  are  against 
the  conscience  of  a  Romanist ;  it  is  an  oppress 
ion  by  the  Government,  to  compel  him  to 
pay  for  its  protection  of  his  rights  and  relig 
ious  liberty,  and  then  in  the  public  schools, 
to  have  his  own  religious  scruples,  and  histor 
ical  learning  and  belief  thus  ignored,  con 
temned,  or  outraged. 

But  again,  he  finds  the  character  of  Martin 
Luther  drawn  by  the  historian  Robertson,  and 
he  cannot  endure  that  a  picture  so  contrary  to 
all  that  he  has  been  taught,  and  that  he  wishes 
his  children  conscientiously  to  believe,  shall 
be  brought  as  truth  before  their  minds.  It  is 
an  infringement  of  his  religious  liberty,  his 
rights  of  conscience,  for  his  children  are  de- 


KEDUCTIO  AD  ABSUEDUM.  27 

barred  from  a  school  where  Martin  Luther  is 
presented  as  a  good  man.  It  is  intolerance  in 
the  government. 

But  again,  he  finds  the  historical  narrative 
of  the  execution  of  Cranmer,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  extracted  from  the  pages  of  Hume, 
and  it  is  against  his  conscience  to  permit  his 
children  to  be  taught  that  Cranmer  was  a  good 
man,  or  that  the  Eomish  Court  was  guilty  of 
barbarous  persecution  in  putting  a  heretic  to 
death.  It  is  an  oppression  of  the  government 
to  have  this  taught  in  the  schools.  His  relig 
ious  scruples  are  in  this  ignored,  contemned, 
and  outraged. 

Once  more,  he  finds  an  extract  from  the  ex 
quisite  poetry  of  Oliver  Goldsmith,  in  which 
the  inhabitants  of  Italy  are  described  in  two 
of  the  lines  as  follows : 

Though  grave,  yet  trifling,  zealous,  yet  untrue, 
And  e'en  in  penance  planning  sins  anew. 

This,  again,  is  an  intolerable  oppression  of  his 
conscience.  His  children  have  been  taught 
that  penance  is  a  rite  and  duty  of  the  Church, 
and  that  those  who  practice  it  are  good  Chris- 


28          ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLE. 

tians ;  but  here  is  a  hint  that  penance  may  be 
merely  the  cover  of  sin ;  and  it  is  contrary  to 
his  religious  scruples,  and  his  rights  of  con 
science,  that  his  children  should  be  made  to 
hear  any  such  thing.  It  is  intolerance  in  the 
government  to  offer  them  an  education  that 
exposes  them  to  such  knowledge ;  it  is  a  vio 
lation  of  his  religious  liberty. 

Now,  of  all  these  supposed  cases,  which  is 
the  most  pinching  ?  Who  are  most  injured  by 
an  education  containing  such  examples  of  "  re 
ligious  bias,"  such  presentations  of  known, 
common,  and  admitted  truth?  Deists,  Mo 
hammedans,  Jews,  Idolaters,  or  Komanists? 
And  of  all  these  forms  of  conscience,  which 
shall  be  taken  as  the  rule  of  religious  liberty? 
According  to  the  assumption  in  the  argument 
against  the  Bible  in  the  schools,  they  ought 
all  to  be  taken.  But  that  again  would  create 
intestine  war ;  each  and  all  would  complain  in 
turn  of  religious  scruples  and  beliefs  ignored 
and  outraged  by  the  other.  Jew,  Moham 
medan,  and  Romanist,  would  contend  against 
each  other  more  earnestly  than  any  or  all, 
against  the  "Word  of  God.  Therefore,  the  only 


EEDUCTTO  AD  ABSURDUM.  29 

rule  of  equality  and  impartiality,  is  the  "Word 
of  God  for  each  and  all. 

But  the  assumption  of  the  argument  against 
a  "religious  bias"  takes  the  sacrifice  of  the 
"Word  of  God  on  the  altar  of  religious  liberty 
as  a  necessity  at  any  rate  in  the  free  school 
system ;  and  now,  following  out  these  prin 
ciples  logically,  consistently,  in  the  formation 
or  expurgation  of  our  whole  school  literature 
for  the  relief  of  conscience,  for  the  liberty  of 
conscience,  where,  and  at  whose  instigation, 
by  whose  conscience  for  the  rule,  for  the 
guide,  shall  the  great  work  of  relief  and 
liberty  begin  ?  Shall  the  conscience  of  Deist, 
Mohammedan,  Jew,  Pagan,  or  Komanist,  be 
the  leader  and  bear  sway?  Your  argument 
compels  you  to  the  choice  of  some  one,  for 
you  reject  the  rule  of  the  majority,  and  a 
mixture  of  opposing  consciences  you  cannot 
have,  but  if  conscience  be  your  principle  of 
regulation  in  the  school  system,  you  must  take 
the  conscience  of  some  one  sect.  Whose 
shall  it  be  ?  You  have  already  determined 
the  matter.  Your  whole  argument  goes  for 
installing  Komanism  as  the  supreme  deciding 


30          ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLE, 

authority.  You  propose  tlie  exclusion  of  the 
Bible,  because  the  conscience  of  the  Eomanist 
requires  it.  '  You  are  ready  to  follow  the 
Priest  of  Eomanism  at  his  beck,  through  the 
whole  region  of  school  literature  and  usages. 
You  have  already  begun  to  do  this  ;  and  the 
passages  I  have  pointed  out  as  incurring  the 
excommunicating  curse  of  a  Komish  con 
science,  your  school  commissioners  have  al 
ready  obliterated  or  mutilated,  at  the  priest's 
bidding ;  and  you  have  thus  made  the  con 
science  of  one  sect  the  tyrant  of  all  the  rest. 

And  to  this  day  this  disgrace  stands  per 
petuated  in  the  school  books.  The  Komish 
edict  has  marked  its  way,  as  it  generally  does, 
so  that  there  is  no  mistaking  it.  And  it 
stands  a  palpable  demonstration  of  the  conse 
quences  to  which  this  argument  against  the 
Bible,  at  the  demand  of  the  conscience  of  a 
single  sect,  must  lead.  The  obliteration  and 
mutilation  of  the  school  books  is  one  legiti 
mate  result,  and  some  of  the  noblest  bursts  of 
eloquence  in  the  English  tongue,  and  most 
exquisitely -wrought  compositions,  historic, 
poetic,  and  didactic,  must  be  cut  away,  and 


REDUCTIO   AD  ABSUKDUM.  31 

cast  out  as  sectarian,  against  which  the  sus 
picion  of  sectarianism  was  never  before 
breathed,  the  idea  never  thought  of.  Com 
positions  of  superior  acknowledged  excellence 
and  immemorial  use  are  to  be  charged  as 
sectarian,  in  which  no  quality  or  aspect  of 
sectarianism  can  be  detected,  because  the  im 
primatur  of  a  particular  sect  is  withheld  from 
them  !  Because  they  are  not  sectarian, — be 
cause  the  historian  was  not  a  Romish  historian, 
— because  the  poet  was  not  a  Romish  poet, 
coloring  his  descriptions  with  the  colors  that 
the  church  demands ;  therefore  they  are  to  be 
marked  and  condemned  .as  sectarian,  and,  on 
that  pretence,  excluded!  And  in  the  gaps 
thus  made,  in  the  speech  of  Lord  Chatham,  for 
example,  the  blackening  impression  is  stamped 
upon  the  page  thus  : — 


32  ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE   BIBLF, 


Whole  pages  wcro  thus  defaced  at  first,  be 
cause  this  was  a  cheap  mode  of  accomplish 
ing  the  Eomish  expurgation,  the  remainder  of 
the  volumes  being  still  readable.  In  other 
pages,  couplets  of  straggling  stars  filled  up 
the  omissions ;  and,  in  another  edition,  the 
offensive  stereotype  plate,  where  it  formed  a 
whole  page,  was  destroyed,  and  pages  totally 
blank  were  left  here  and  there  through  the 
volume.  Such  is  the  aspect  of  a  portion  of 
the  school  literature  at  this  moment. 


0f 


THUS  have  you  done.  But  in  doing  this, 
you  have  forgotten  01  ignored  the  fact  that 
others,  besides  the  opposers  of  the  Scriptures, 
have  a  conscience  also.  They  are,  moreover, 
the  overwhelming  majority,  a  point  which  we 
shall  thoroughly  consider.  They  will  tell  you 
that  after  the  "Word  of  God  is  thus  prohibited, 
and  the  whole  round  of  literature  expurgated 
of  every  "  religious  bias,"  all  the  religious 
element,  and  even  the  Protestant  historical 
element  eliminated,  they,  in  their  turn,  are 
conscientiously  prohibited,  by  that  very  ex 
clusion  and  elimination,  from  the  benefit  of 
an  education  by  the  Government.  They  pay 
their  tax  ;  but  the  Government  oppresses  and 
tramples  on  their  constitutional  and  conscien 
tious  rights,  and  offers  them,  instead  of  a  free 
education,  an  education  fenced  round  with 
bars  and  lances,  an  education  provided  with 


34      THE  CHKISTIAN'S  EIGHTS  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

dykes  to  keep  out  the  influx  of  Christianity, 
like  the  swamps  of  Holland  with  their  em 
bankments  sustained  at  such  an  enormous  ex 
pense,  to  keep  out  the  sea.  It  offers  them,  in 
stead  of  an  education  for  freemen,  an  educa 
tion  hoodwinked,  fettered,  jealous,  that  like  a 
liveried  horse,  cannot  travel  in  the  public 
highway  without  blinders.  It  offers  them,  in 
stead  of  a  system  open  and  fearless,  producing 
habits  of  inquiry  and  investigation,  a  coward 
education,  that  cannot  bear  the  light, — nay, 
an  education  of  which  one  of  the  fixed  and 
guiding  elements  is  the  exclusion  of  the  light ; 
an  education  that  must  stifle  the  voice  and 
muffle  the  drum  of  history ;  an  education  that 
cannot  endure  so  much  as  the  mention  of  the 
name  of  Martin  Luther,  but  with  priest's  curses. 
But  that  is  by  no  means  the  worst.  It  is 
a  system  of  oppression ;  you  fall  by  it  into 
the  very  evil  for  the  avoidance  of  which  you 
have  required  us,  at  the  conscience  of  the 
Eomanist,  to  keep  out  the  Bible.  It  is  an  op 
pression  which,  favoring  every  sect  in  its  turn 
that  is  opposed  to  Christianity,  sets  itself 
against  those  only  whose  conscience  binds 
them  to  Christianity.  You  have  chosen  a 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  RIGHTS  OF  CONSCIENCE.      85 

public  school  system  that  legislates  in  behalf 
of  every  congeries  of  unbelievers,  every  squad 
of  opposers  of  the  Bible  and  of  religion, 
under  whatever  shape,  and  at  their  command, 
arranges  the  course  of  instruction,  puts  the 
expurgatory  brush  in  turn  into  the  hands  of 
a  committee  from  every  one  of  them,  saying 
in  succession,  if  logically  consistent,  Now 
take  your  conscientious  turn  in  blotting  out ; 
and  resists,  disregards,  and  really  outrages 
the  consciences  of  those  only  who  love  the 
Bible,  and  demand  the  full  historical  truth. 
Have  they  no  rights  of  conscience?  Have 
they  no  claim  to  a  perfect  religious  free 
dom  ?  Are  all  sects  in  turn  to  be  promoted, 
and  they  alone  contemned  ?  They  do  solemn 
ly  believe  and  aver  that  a  system  of  education 
which,  from  being  in  the  outset  grounded  in 
the  Word  of  God,  fearless,  free,  unsectarian, 
yet  shining  with  high  religious  light,  is  delib 
erately  altered,  is  emasculated,  is  blinded  and 
fettered,  to  meet  the  imperious  demands  of  a 
sect  opposed  to  the  "Word  of  Grod,  and  becomes 
jealous  against  all  truth  hated  of  that  one  sect, 
being  thus  sacrificed  for  a  sectarian  purpose,  is 
unfit  for  the  children  of  freemen,  unbecoming 


36      THE  CHRISTIAN'S  EIGHTS  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

the  republic.     They  believe  that  a  system  of 
education  which  thus  studiously  and  guarded- 
ly  excludes  a  religious  bias,  and  puts  the  Bible 
under  a  public  ban,  is  in  essence  and  inevita 
bly  infidel  and  deleterious  in  its  tendency; 
and  they  cannot  conscientiously  support  it. 
But  you  compel  them  to  support  it ;  you  pay 
no   attention   whatever   to    their  consciences. 
Their  conscience  happening  to  be  in  behalf  of 
the   Bible,  is   branded  as  an  intolerant  con 
science,  interfering  with  the  rights  of  a  perfect 
religious  liberty.     The  conscience  of  the  Eo- 
manist,  who  hates  the  Bible,  and  must  get  it 
out  of  the  schools,  and  not  only  so,  but  must 
have  the    school-books    expurgated    by   the 
priest,  or  he  will  not  send  his  children,  you 
respect.     The  conscience   _f  the  -Christian,  the 
Protestant,  who   sincerely   believes   that  the 
Bible  ought  to  be  recognized,  and  its  teachings 
admitted,  or  if  they  be  put  under  excommuni 
cation,  he  cannot  conscientiously  send  his  chil 
dren,  you  despise ;  you  pay  no  attention  to 
his  scruple?  ,  you  DO  more  regard  his  deepest 
and  deare«t  rights  of  conscience,  than  if  his  love 
of  God,  an ;  his  veneration  of  God's  word,  were 
the  most  offensive  and  licentious  superstition. 


prt*  tort 


THE  question  of  the  Bible  in  schools  is  not 
the  question  of  a  distinctively  religious  in 
struction  as  sectarian  ;  it  is  a  confusion  of 
terms  and  ideas  to  present  it  as  such.  The 
Bible  is  the  only  unsectarian  book  and  system. 
The  Bible  is  religious  instruction,  all-pervad 
ing,  pure,  perfect,  but  not  distinctive  or  secta 
rian,  as  opposed  to  this  or  that  sect  ;  just  as 
the  atmosphere  is  omnipresent,  translucent,  vi 
tal,  but  not  as  oxygen  or  nitrogen.  The  mo 
ment  any  sect  claims  that  the  Bible  is  secta 
rian,  and  therefore  would  have  it  excluded, 
this  would  be  just  averring  or  intimating  that 
they  are  themselves  opposed  in  it  ;  but  no  sect 
will  avowedly  do  that.  The  Bible,  then,  is 
neither  Protestant  nor  Eomish.  It  has  never 

been  used  as  such  in  our  schools  ;  it  was  never 
4 


38  THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTAKIAN. 

at  the  outset  introduced  as  such ;  and  it  is  a 
slander  against  those  who  love  it,  and  a  libel 
on  the  founders  of  our  school  system,  to  make 
any  such  assertion.  The  Bible  is  used  as 
God's  Word,  our  guide  to  everlasting  life,  and 
not  as  a  book  of  Protestantism.!  If  God's 
Word  is  against  Romanism,  so  be  it ;  we  can 
not  help  that ;  but  that  is  no  good  reason  why 
we  should  hide  it  from  our  children,  or  ex 
punge  it  from  our  school  literature.  If  God's 
Word  is  against  Romanism,  it  is  because  it  is 
God's  truth ;  and  not  because  it  is  Protestant 
truth. 

The  Bible  is  older  than  Romanism,  older 
than  any  sect  in  the  world.  The  Bible  is  the 
only  Catholicity ;  the  only  form  in  which  re 
ligion  can  be  taught  without  a  sectarian  relig 
ious  bias;  and  that  is  a  great  and  mighty 
reason  why  it  should  be  taught,  or  enter  in 
some  way  as  an  acknowledged  divine  element 
into  our  public  school  system.  It  may  be  used 
in  a  thousand  forms ;  there  are  already  most 
unexceptionable  examples,  most  admirable 
compilations  of  Scripture  lessons.  It  is  by  no 
means  necessary  to  use  the  Bible  as  a  text- 


THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTAKIAN.  39 

book  ;  but  selections  may  be  made  without  of 
fence  to  any  Christian  denomination,  and  still 
conveying  a  great  amount  of  instruction  from 
the  fountain  of  light  and  life.  And  much 
might  be  said  as  to  the  preciousness,  the  in 
valuable  worth  of  such  a  model  of  our  native 
tongue,  in  its  sweetest,  simplest,  purest  Saxon 
idioms,  to  be  familiar  to  the  youthful  mind ; 
a  book  of  style,  as  well  as  thought  and  relig 
ion,  at  that  tender  age,  when  every  book, 
habitually  read,  forms  the  habit,  both  of 
thought  and  expression,  into  a  reflex  image  of 
itself.  The  dews  of  elemental  purity  and 
power  in  our  language,  as  well  as  of  heavenly 
thought  and  instructions,  should  thus  be  per 
mitted  to  fall  daily,  gently  upon  the  opening 
blossoms  of  intellect. 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  notice  and  expose 
that  artifice  of  sophistry  to  exclude  the  Word 
of  God,  by  representing  our  English  transla 
tion  of  the  Scriptures,  as  a  Protestant  or  secta 
rian  translation.  It  is  no  more  a  Protestant 
translation,  than  the  Bible  itself,  in  the  origi 
nal,  is  a  sectarian  book.  Neither  was  it  ever 
the  particular  version,  but  the  Word  of  God 


40  THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTARIAN. 

itself,  which  the  translators  of  our  English 
Scriptures  set  forth  as  an  antidote  to  Popery. 
Unless  it  be  argued  and  admitted  that  the 
Word  of  God  in  a  faithful  translation  ceases 
to  be  the  Word  of  God,  there  must  be  a  trans 
lation  in  some  shape  used.  Now,  as  to  the 
great  Conscience  argument,  of  which  we  shall 
farther  speak,  thousands  and  millions  of  those 
who  pay  taxes  for  the  schools,  conscientiously 
believe  that  our  common  English  translation 
of  the  Scriptures,  being  neither  Protestant,  nor 
sectarian,  but  the  true  Word  of  God,  ought 
to  be  used ;  that  at  any  rate  it  ought  to  be 
used  till  in  the  providence  of  God  a  better 
translation  shall  be  afforded ;  that  it  ought  to 
be  used,  and  is  used,  with  no  sectarian  or  Pro 
testant  design,  but  as  a  thing  of  equal  duty, 
right,  justice,  and  concernment  to  all ;  that  if 
the  majority  of  our  citizens  employed  another 
translation  in  their  families,  which  they  were 
willing  and  desirous  to  have  used  in  the  schools, 
then  that  translation  ought  to  be  used,  with  the 
privilege,  in  the  case  any  particular  schools, 
or  classes,  or  individuals  desired  it,  of  using 
the  other  translation ;  but  in  any  and  every 


THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTAKIAN.  41 

case,  not  as  a  matter  of  tolerance,  but  of  right. 
It  is  the  just  right  of  those,  who  pay  for  .  the 
school  system,  and  conscientiously  believe 
that  their  children  ought  to  listen  to  the  Word 
of  God  somewhere,  in  some  way,  in  the  public 
schools,  to  have  that  "Word  used,  to  enjoy  that 
privilege ;  and  those  who  would  forbid  and 
prevent  this  privilege,  those  who  would  ex 
clude  the  Word  of  God,  are  the  intolerant 
party ;  those  who,  because  they  themselves 
dislike  it,  would  make  their  professed  and  con 
scientious  dislike  the  iron  and  intolerant  rule 
of  all  the  rest. 

But  the  sophistry  in  regard  to  a  Protestant 
Bible  is  so  plausible  with  some,  that  it  requires 
a  further  notice.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
Protestant  version ;  there  never  has  been :  it 
is  a  mere  figment,  used  to  cover  the  attack 
against  the  Word  of  God.  There  is  a  Eomish 
version,  but  there  is  no  Protestant  version. 
There  is  an  English  version  for  all  who  read 
English ;  the  work  was  begun  by  Wickliffe, 
in  the  Eomish  Church,  before  the  art  of  print 
ing  ;  it  was  renewed  and  continued  by  Tyn- 

dale,  Coverdale,  Matthew,  and  others  in  the 
4* 


42  THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTARIAN. 

same  Romish  Church,  before  the  public  protest 
ation  against  the  errors  of  that  church.  It 
was  printed,  published,  and  circulated  by  the 
authority  of  a  Romish  king,  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  with  a  license,  procured  by  Cranmer 
and  the  Vicar-General  Orumwell,  of  the  Romish 
Church,  permitting,  in  Cranmer's  words,  that 
it  might  be  "  read  of  every  person,  without 
dangers  of  any  act,  proclamation,  or  ordinance 
heretofore  granted  to  the  contrary,  until  such 
time  that  we  the  Bishops  shall  set  forth  a 
better  translation,  which  I  think  will  not  be 
till  a  day  after  doomsday."  This  very  trans 
lation,  which,  in  the  main,  was  that  of  Tyn- 
dale,  was  substantially  taken  as  the  basis  of 
the  translation  issued  under  King  James ;  it 
was,  in  effect,  adopted  by  the  forty-seven  trans 
lators  employed  by  him,  so  that  our  present 
incomparable  English  translation  of  the  Scrip 
tures  cannot  be  called  a  Protestant  translation, 
but  simply  the  English  translation,  and  of  such 
perfect  freedom  from  anything  sectarian,  as 
between  Romanism  and  other  sects,  that  the 
learned  Dr.  Alexander  Geddes,  an  ecclesiastic 
of  the  Romish  Church  himself,  called  it  "  of 


THE  BIBLE  NOT   SECTARIAN".  43 

all  versions  the  most  excellent,  for  accuracy, 
fidelity,  and  the  strictest  attention  to  the  letter 
of  the  text."  The  learned  Selden  called  our 
English  translation  "  the  best  version  in  the 
world." 

But  it  is  not  a  Protestant  translation,  nor  a 
Protestant  Bible,  but  it  is,  simply,  the  people's 
Bible,  the  "Word  of  God  in  English,  for  those 
who  speak  the  English  tongue.  If  no  Bible 
but  the  original  Greek  and  Hebrew  were  the 
Word  of  God,  then  none  but  Greeks  and 
Hebrews  have  the  Word  of  God;  and  if  all 
Bibles  but  Greek  and  Hebrew  are  sectarian 
Bibles,  then  the  Romish  church  itself  has  no 
thing  but  a  sectarian  Bible  ;  her  chosen  version 
of  the  Latin  Yulgate  is  a  sectarian  version,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  Douay  Bible.  This  stig 
matizing  of  our  English  translation  as  the 
Protestant  version  is  a  poor  trick  resorted  to 
in  order  to  banish  the  Word  of  God  from  our 
schools.  It  is  not  a  Protestant  version,  but  it 
is  simply  a  faithful  translation  of  the  Word 
of  God  in  English,  for  the  free  use  of  men, 
women,  and  children  of  all  classes  and  de 
nominations. 


44  THE   BIBLE  NOT  SECTAEIAN. 

If  the  Romanists  choose  to  use  any  other 
English  version  in  the  schools,  they  are  at 
perfect  liberty  so  to  do ;  let  them  use  their 
Douay  version,  if  they  please.  Classes  might 
be  formed  in  any  or  every  school  with  the 
Douay  version,  or  the  common  English  ver 
sion,  and  either  be  used  at  pleasure.  But  for 
one  party  to  say  to  the  other, — Because  we  do 
not  desire  to  have  the  English  translation  used 
in  the  schools,  you  shall  not  have  it,  and  for 
this  to  be  enforced  as  the  rule,  would  be  glar 
ing  injustice  and  intolerance. 

The  Word  of  God  in  English  is  no  more 
the  Protestant  Bible  or  the  Protestant  version 
than  the  science  of  Algebra  in  English  is 
Protestant  Algebra,  or  of  astronomy  the  Pro 
testant  astronomy ;  no  more  than  the  stars  in 
America  are  Protestant  stars,  or  the  sun  a 
Protestant  sun.  Both  the  works  of  God  and 
the  Word  of  God  are  God's  truth.  The  works 
of  God,  this  sun,  these  stars,  are  seen  in 
England,  through  an  English  atmosphere,  in 
America,  through  an  American  atmosphere, 
but  they  do  not  on  that  account,  in  America 
or  England,  cease  to  be  the  sun  and  stars  of 


THE   BIBLE  NOT  SECTAKIAN.  45 

God,  or  become  a  sun  and  stars  of  English  or 
American  workmanship.  The  light  is  not 
American  light,  nor  English  light,  because 
it  pours  from  the  sky,  through  clouds  in  the 
English  or  American  climate,  but  it  is  God's 
light,  though  it  poured  through  a  London  fog. 
Suppose  now,  (to  take  another  line  of  illus 
trations,)  that  a  poor  man  comes  with  his 
children  to  a  public  asylum  for  something  to 
eat.  He  is  received  and  placed  with  his  chil 
dren  at  a  table  bountifully  spread,  and  is  told 
to  eat  abundantly.  But  suddenly  he  sees  a 
salt-cellar  on  the  table,  and  declares  that  he 
cannot  eat  salt,  neither  he  nor  his  children,  nor 
anything  cooked  with  it,  for  that  he  has  a  scru 
pulous  religious  conscientious  objection  against 
it.  And  suppose  that,  rather  than  turn  the 
man  away  hungry,  you  set  a  separate  table  for 
him,  and  provide  food  that  has  no  salt  in  it. 
But,  meanwhile,  the  other  inmates  of  the  asy 
lum  come  to  their  daily  nourishment,  and  sit 
down  and  eat  at  the  other  table  with  the  salt 
upon  it ;  and  then  this  man  of  so  great  con 
science  farther  declares,  that  neither  he  nor  his 
children  can  partake  of  food  in  that  house, 


46  THE   BIBLE   NOT   SECTAKIAN. 

unless  they  exclude  salt  from  the  house ;  that 
it  is  an  oppression  of  his  conscience  to  be 
obliged  to  eat  any  thing  where  others  are  eat 
ing  salt,  and  that  if  you  persist  in  having  salt 
as  one  of  the  regular  articles  of  food  in  that 
asylum,  you  will  be  guilty  of  starving  him  and 
his  children  to  death,  for  that  he  has  no  means 
of  getting  food  anywhere  else,  and  his  con 
science  prevents  the  possibility  of  his  availing 
himself  of  the  food  offered  to  him  there. 
"Would  you  say  that  the  government  are  to  be 
bound  by  the  conscience  of  this  family,  and 
that  they  have  no  right  to  authorize  the  use  of 
salt  at  all  in  that  asylum  ?  To  this  extent  does 
the  demand  of  the  Komanists  against  the 
Scriptures  go. 

Now,  apply  this  to  the  case  before  us.  Sup 
pose  that  a  particular  family  object  to  their 
children  studying  arithmetic  out  of  Colburn's 
Sequel.  It  is  no  matter  what  the  ground  of 
conscience  in  this  case  is ;  it  is  su  fficient  that  it 
is  conscience  that  professes  to  make  the  objec 
tion.  The  children  come  to  school,  and  in 
obedience  to  their  parents'  command,  refuse  to 
get,  along  with  the  other  children  of  the  class 


THE   BIBLE   NOT    SECTARIAN.  47 

the  lesson  set  them.  They  persist  in  their 
refusal,  till  at  length  they  are  forbidden  the 
school,  unless  they  will  observe  its  discipline, 
and  use  that  book.  Now,  would  any  man  un 
dertake  to  set  up  a  cry  of  intolerance  and 
hardship  in  this  case  ?  Suppose  there  were  a 
score  of  families  and  a  hundred  children  united 
in  the  same  objection.  Would  the  sense  of 
right  and  justice  in  the  community  demand 
that  Colburn's  Sequel  be  excluded  from  the 
school,  or  that  otherwise  those  children  were 
oppressively  treated,  deprived  of  the  means  of 
education  ?  No,  you  would  say  ;  it  is  a  wilful 
obstinacy  in  this  case,  interfering  with  and 
breaking  up  all  possibility  of  order  and  disci 
pline  in  the  school,  which  must  be  main 
tained. 

Suppose  again,  that  the  New  Testament  is 
used  as  a  class-book  in  the  schools,  and  a  cer 
tain  number  of  children  refuse  to  read  that, 
and  persist  in  the  refusal.  Is  it  any  less  wrong, 
any  less  a  breach  of  order  and  discipline,  to 
refuse  to  read  the  lesson  in  the  New  Testa 
ment,  than  it  would  be  to  refuse  to  get  the 
lesson  in  Colburn's  Sequel  ?  And  if  the  Su- 


48  THE   BIBLE   NOT   SECTARIAN. 

perintendent  of  the  school  decides,  that  unless 
the  children  will  obey  the  rules  of  the  school 
they  cannot  be  received  into  it,  is  it  any  more 
injustice  in  this  case,  than  it  would  be  in  the 
case  of  Colburn's  Sequel  ?  The  use  of  the 
New  Testament  as  a  reading  book,  is  no  more 
sectarian  than  the  use  of  Colburn's  Sequel,  as 
a  book  of  the  science  of  arithmetic ;  indeed, 
not  so  much  so  ;  for,  whereas  the  New  Testa 
ment  is  the  pure  truth  from  God,  not  passed 
through  any  human  or  sectarian  system,  Col 
burn's  Sequel  is  God's  mathematics,  passed 
through  Colburn's  particular  mind,  with  his 
selected  formulas,  put  into  his  system ;  as  Col 
burn's  arithmetic,  it  is  sectarian  arithmetic,  and 
the  Eomish  Index  Expurgatorius  would  have 
denounced  it  as  such,  had  he  lived  in  Galileo's 
time,  and  been  a  heretic.  But  the  New  Testa 
ment  is  God's  Word,  and  not  man's,  nor  men's, 
nor  the  property,  nor  right  of  any  one  sect  or 
denomination.  And  they  who,  on  the  ground 
of  an  obligation  to  their  own  particular  church, 
should  refuse  to  use  the  New  Testament,  and 
demand  of  the  Legislature  not  to  have  it  used 
on  this  account,  would  be  guilty  of  the  most 


THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTARIAN.  40 

monstrous  intolerance  towards  all  the  other 
churches,  or  sects,  or  denominations  that  claim 
it,  or  have  been  in  the  habit  of  using  it,  and 
still  insist  upon  that  privilege  as  their  right. 

The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Maine  de 
clares  that,  "  No  subordination  nor  preference 
of  any  one  sect  or  denomination  to  another, 
shall  ever  be  established  by  law."  How  much 
more,  that  no  preference  of  any  one  sect  above 
oZZthe  others,  shall  be  permitted,  and  that  there 
shall  be  no  one  denomination  to  which  the  ar 
rangements  of  all  the  others  shall  have  to  sub 
mit.  Now,  the  banishing  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  as  a  class-book,  at  the  demand  of  a  hun 
dred  Eomish  children,  the  passage  of  a  law 
requiring  the  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools  in  any  township  or  county  to  do  this, 
would  be,  in  fact,  absolutely  and  unquestion 
ably  installing  and  establishing  the  one  Eomish 
sect  in  preference  and  power  over  all  the  oth 
ers.  And  yet,  a  public  writer  has  quoted  that 
very  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  Maine, 
to  prove  that  neither  the  Legislature  nor  the 
School  Superintendent  have  any  right  to  ap 
point  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament  as  a 


50  THE  BIBLE   NOT  SECTARIAN. 

class-book,  and  to  require  the  children  who  at 
tend  school  to  attend  to  that  lesson  I  Has 
quoted  that  very  provision  to  prove  that  the 
Komanists  ought  to  be  admitted  to  make  a 
law  for  all  other  sects,  preventing  them  from 
having  the  Bible  as  a  class-book ! 

The  argument  is,  that  if  the  Bible  be  ad 
mitted,  the  Roman  Catholic  children  are  ex 
cluded,  and  inasmuch  as  the  Constitution  says 
that  no  subordination  nor  preference  of  any 
one  sect  or  denomination  to  another  shall  ever 
be  established  by  law,  therefore  the  Bible  must 
be  excluded.  But  why?  Because  a  partic 
ular  sect  requires  it !  Then  what  is  that,  but 
just  preferring  a  particular  sect  to  give  law  to 
all  the  others,  contrary  to  the  Constitution? 
And  yet  this  absurd  argument  will  seem 
plausible  with  many ;  and  any  case  where  the 
Bible  is  used  in  school,  notwithstanding  the 
opposition  of  a  party  against  it,  and  where,  on 
right  principles,  the  established  custom  and 
law  of  the  school  demanding  it,  the  teacher 
and  superintendent  cannot  do  otherwise  than 
retain  the  Bible,  or  trample  on  the  rights  of 
all  denominations,  will  be  paraded  as  a  case 


THE    BIBLE  NOT  SECTARIAN.  51 

of  intolerance  and  usurpation !  Because  the 
Constitution  requires  that  no  one  sect  shall 
have  preference  over  another,  therefore  it  is 
unconstitutional  to  use  the  Bible !  therefore 
the  Bible  in  the  school  is  a  usurpation  and 
oppression  !  Because  the  Constitution  requires 
that  all  denominations  shall  have  equal  rights, 
therefore  no  denomination  shall  have  a  right 
to  the  Bible,  if  any  denomination  object  to  it. 
Is  not  that  an  admirable  logic  of  equality  and 
freedom  ? 

The  appointment  of  a  reading  lesson  from 
the  sacred  Scriptures,  with  a  rule  that  the 
whole  class,  or  the  whole  school,  as  the  case 
may  be,  shall  take  part  in  it,  is  no  more  an 
instance  of  religious  compulsion,  than  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  reading  lesson  from  the  Task, 
or  from  the  Paradise  Lost.  If  the  children 
were  compelled  to  give  their  assent  to  it,  or 
signify  their  belief  of  any  religious  truth  in  it, 
then  indeed  it  would  be  compulsion.  But  the 
appointment  of  a  reading  lesson  from  the  Bible 
is  no  more  an  oppression  upon  conscience, 
than  the  teaching  of  the  art  of  reading  itself 
is  an  oppression  upon  conscience.  Any  school 


52  THE  BIBLE  NOT  SECTAKIAN. 

exercise  is  as  much  an  oppression  as  the  read 
ing  of  the  Bible,  if  any  child  refuse  it,  and  be 
compelled  to  join  in  it.  Yet,  to  avoid  even 
the  appearance  of  compulsion,  it  should  be 
entirely  at  the  option  of  parents  to  say  whether 
their  children  shall  join  in  such  an  exercise. 
We  shall  consider  this  matter  again  under  the 
example  of  Scotland. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  REASONING 


ON  THE   GROUND   OF  ITS  BEING  AN 
OPPRESSION   TO   USE   IT. 

THE  reasoning  of  those  who  would  exclude 
the  Bible,  makes  the  assumption  that  if  only 
one  conscience  object  to  it,  its  use  is  wrong. 
No  ultimate  rule  of  conscience  is  proposed, 
none  admitted  ;  and  although  the  Divine  Be 
ing  has  given  his  Word  to  dissipate-  the  doubt 
and  darkness  of  the  human  conscience  unen 
lightened,  and  to  set  it  right,  yet  this  reason 
ing  assumes  that  a  conscience  without  the  Bi 
ble  and  against  it  is  of  as  much  validity  and 
authority,  as  a  conscience  guided  ~by  the  Bible. 
A  man  who  rejects  the  Word  of  God,  has,  on 
this  theory,  as  much  right  to  set  up  his  con 
science  as  the  ground  in  making  that  rejection 

a  rule  for  others,  as  one  who  receives  the  Word 
5* 


54  FALSE    ASSUMPTIONS 

of  God,  lias  to  propose  that  Word  as  the  rule. 
And  if  the  conscience  of  any  person  is  set  in 
opposition  against  that  Word,  it  is,  on  the  as 
sumptions  of  this  theory,  a  persecution  of 
such  persons  to  place  that  Word  before  them, 
or  to  put  them,  in  a  situation  where  they  can 
not  avoid  beholding  its  light,  or  even  to  offer 
them  a  vast  benefit,  if  at  the  same  time  the 
nature  of  that  benefit  is  such,  that  their  abhor 
rence  of  the  Word  of  God  causes  them  to  re 
linquish  the  boon. 

The  reasoning  on  such  premises  is  destruc 
tive  of  the  right  to  spread  the  Word  of  God 
anywhere.  Take  the  Duke  of  Tuscany's  do 
minions  as  a  pertinent  example.  The  Duke's 
conscience,'  under  that  of  the  priests  who  keep 
his  conscience,  forbids  his  permitting  any  of 
his  subjects  to  use  the  Word  of  God  in  the 
vernacular  tongue.  Now,  on  the  reasoning  of 
those  who  would  exclude  the  Scriptures  from 
our  free  public  schools,  you  are  intolerant,  if 
you  give  away  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  or  teach  it 
in  the  Duke's  possessions.  You  go  against  the 
rights  of  conscience,  and  the  rule  and  reason  of 
a  perfect  religious  liberty,  if  you,  in  opposition 


AGAINST    THE    WORD    OF    GOD.  55 

to  the  dictates  of  that  conscience,  thrust  the 
"Word  of  God  before  the  people.  And  when 
.the  Duke  seizes  you,  and  thrusts  you  into 
prison,  it  is  not  he  that  is  committing  a  crime 
against  God's  Word  and  your  conscience,  but 
it  is  you  that  have  violated  his  freedom  of 
conscience,  his  impartial  liberty,  which,  in  and 
for  the  education  of  his  people,  ought  to  be 
left  without  any  "  religious  bias."  It  is  not 
he  that  persecutes  you,  but  you  that  endea 
vored  to  persecute  him  ;  and  he  simply  gives 
you  the  just  punishment  of  your  intolerance 
and  bigotry  in  thrusting  upon  his  subjects  the 
Word  of  God.  For  the  Duke  of  Tuscany's 
dominions  are  merely  a  moderate  sized  public 
school,  where  the  experiment  of  an  education 
free  from  "  religious  bias,"  free  from  the  in 
trusion  of  the  Word  of  God,  is  going  quietly 
on  ;  and  you  disturb  that  quiet  by  your  intol 
erant  presentment  of  God's  Word,  against 
those  conscientious  scruples  which  the  Duke 
of  Tuscany's  government  is  bound  to  protect. 
And  the  district  school  is  but  the  Duke  of 
Tuscany's  dominions  in  miniature,  where  you 
administer  an  impartial  education  in  the  same 


56  FALSE    ASSUMPTIONS 

manner,  free  from  any  "religious  bias,"  and 
with  a  scrupulous  exclusion  of  the  Word  of 
God.  You  can  exclude  the  Word  of  God 
from  the  common  school  or  from  Italy,  only 
on  the  same  ground ;  a  tyrannical  pretence  of 
regard  to  conscience,  the  pretence  that  you  are 
bound,  from  regard  to  the  conscience  of  those 
who  oppose  the  Word  of  God,  to  exclude  it 
from  the  presence  and  hearing  of  those  who 
love  it,  desire  it,  and  need  it. 

On  this  theory,  that  is,  the  theory  that  a 
conscience  outside  the  Word  of  God,  and 
against  it,  is  as  authoritative,  and  as  much  to 
be  respected  as  a  conscience  enlightened  by 
it,  and  acting  under  its  guidance,  if  the  con 
science  of  the  majority  bind  them  to  persecute, 
the  minority  ought  to  make  no  opposition,  for 
such  opposition  would  itself  be  an  intolerant 
interference  with  the  rights  of  perfect  religious 
liberty.  On  this  theory,  the  moment  the  Eo- 
manists  should  become  the  majority,  and  set 
the  engines  of  inquisitorial  cruelty  in  play  in 
our  own  country,  you  have  not  a  word  to  say ; 
for  even  if  you  had  the  power  to  stop  such 
persecution,  it  would  be  intolerance  and  big- 


AGAINST  THE   WORD   OF  GOD.  57 

otry  to  do  it ;  it  would  be  the  oppression  of 
your  fellow-citizens,  thus  to  prevent  them 
from  exercising  and  enjoying  their  conscien 
tious  preferences.  Nay,  if  you  even  have  the 
majority,  you  have  no  right  so  to  lord  it  over 
the  consciences  of  the  minority  as  to  prevent 
them  from  persecuting.  You  have  no  right 
to  prevent  them  from  burning  every  Bibl  i  in 
the  land,  or  tearing  down  every  Protestant 
chapel ;  because,  if  otherwise,  then,,  by  parity 
of  reasoning,  if  they  should  have  the  majority, 
they  would  have  the  right  to  force  your  con 
sciences  according  to  theirs.  To  this  absurdity 
do  such  reasonings,  or  rather  such  assumptions 
and  false  premises,  lead. 


RIGHTS  OF  THE  MAJORITY. 

You  object  to  the  settlement  of  the  question 
as  to  the  Bible  by  the  majority,  declaring  that 
"  wherever  the  question  of  reading  the  Bible 
in  the  Common  Schools  was  settled  affirma 
tively  by  the  bare  force  of  majority,  it  was  set 
tled  upon  a  wrong  principle."  "  Conscience," 
you  say,  "knows  no  majorities."  Does  it 
know  minorities  any  more?  Does  it  mend 
the  matter  to  have  the  minority  rule?  You 
are  bound  to  suppose  as  much  conscience  on 
the  one  side  as  the  other ;  if  a  conscience  in 
the  minority  against  the  Bible,  a  conscience 
also  in  the  majority  demanding  it.  If,  then,  it 
is  not  the  bare  force  of  a  majority  that  retains 
the  Bible,  it  must  be  the  bare  force  of  a  minor 
ity  that  excludes  it;  and  which  intolerance 


EIGHTS   OF  THE   MAJORITY.  59 

and  injustice  is  the  greatest  ?  By  your  rea 
soning,  you  would  give  all  the  positive  rights 
of  the  majority  into  the  power  of  a  negative  in 
the  minority,  sacrificing  what  is  dear  as  a  mat 
ter  of  conscience  to  twenty  millions,  for  the 
prejudices  of  two  millions.  The  question  is 
not,  as  assumed,  between  a  religious  education 
and  no  education,  but  between  an  education 
in  which  the  conscience  of  the  minority,  or 
that  of  the  majority,  shall  be  respected.  If 
you  make  the  conscience  of  the  minority  the 
rule,  you  take  the  monstrous  position,  in  a 
Christian  land,  of  legislating  against  the  Chris 
tian  conscience,  (the  conscience  that  decides  in 
favor  of  the  Scriptures,)  and  in  behalf  of  the 
anti-Christian,  the  conscience  that  decides 
against  them.  You  set  up  the  conscience  of 
Jews,  Turks,  Infidels,  Deists,  Atheists,  Eoman- 
ists,  Pagans,  Idolaters,  as  superior,  as  having 
higher  claims,  as  being,  in  fact,  the  standard  of 
religious  liberty,  against  the  conscience  of 
those  who  hold  to  the  Word  of  Grod.  It  is  not 
the  professed  indifference  of  liberty,  but  it  is 
the  favoritism  of  infidelity.  You  have,  in 
your  reasoning,  completely  ignored  the  fact 


60      THE  JUST  PEINCIPLE   OF  SETTLEMENT. 

that  there  is  a  conscience  in  favor  of  the  Scrip 
tures,  as  well  as  against  them. 

And  yet,  on  the  ground  of  such  conscience, 
by  the  tenor  of  your  own  argument,  a  system 
of  universal  education,  supported  by  the  State, 
cannot  exclude  the  Bible  and  all  religious  in 
struction,  except  with  the  free  consent  of  all 
concerned.  It  cannot  do  this,  and  be  a  uni 
versal  and  an  impartial  system.  If  I  am  a 
Christian,  and  pay  my  tax  for  the  support  of 
Government,  1  am  entitled  equally  with  my 
Romish  fellow -citizens  to  all  the  benefits  of 
Government.  To  deprive  me  of  one  of  these 
benefits,  upon  the  ground  of  my  religion,  is  an 
outrage  upon  my  conscience,  and  upon  the 
principles  of  religious  liberty,  without  which 
there  cannot  be  perfect  civil  liberty.  But  you 
do  deprive  me,  when  you  refuse  the  Bible  and 
all  religious  instruction,  and  thus  compel  me 
to  educate  my  children  against  my  conscience, 
or  else  exclude  them  from  the  schools  because 
of  my  religious  scruples.  My  scruples  in  fa 
vor  of  the  Bible  are  at  least  as  sacred,  and  as 
worthy  to  be  regarded,  as  the  scruples  of  any 
other  man  against  the  Bible,  The  Govern- 


EIGHTS    OF  THE   MAJOEITY.  61 

ment  cannot  any  more  rightfully  deprive  me 
of  the  benefit  of  an  education,  because  I  hap 
pen  to  have  a  conscience  in  favor  of  the  Bible, 
than  it  can  another  man,  who  has  a  conscience 
against  the  Bible.  Admit  such  an  equality, 
and  how  is  it  possible  to  decide  the  matter, 
but  by  the  majority  ? 

If  the  question  be  determined  by  majority, 
there  is  a  perfect  safety;  if  by  conscience, 
there  is  not,  unless,  indeed,  you  admit  the 
Word  of  God  as  of  ultimate  and  supreme  au 
thority,  and  determine  conscience  by  that.  If 
the  conscience  is  to  decide,  the  question  in 
stantly  comes  up, —  What  conscience  shall  it 
be,  and  whose?  For  there  are  two  parties 
supposed,  and  not  supposed  only,  in  the  argu 
ment,  but  really  existing ;  the  one  con 
scientiously  opposed,  the  other  conscientiously 
in  favor.  Moreover,  the  one  in  favor  claims 
a  great  right  and  benefit,  of  essential  import 
ance,  in  the  highest  degree,  and  in  the  most 
vital  direction.  The  one  opposed  would  ex 
clude  and  prevent  that  benefit,  for  any,  and 
for  the  whole,  on  the  plea,  not  that  it  is  in 
jurious  to  any,  but  that  it  is  against  the 
6 


62      THE  JUST  PRINCIPLE  OF  SETTLEMENT. 

sectarian  conscience  of  a  part.  Which  has 
the  highest  claim,  the  positive  conscience  or 
the  negative  ?  Which  shall  have  his  way,  the 
dog  in  the  manger,  or  the  horse  that  wants  to 
eat?  Shall  the  few  that  would  reject  the 
Bible  for  the  whole,  that  the  few  may  not 
have  to  encounter  it,  prevail,  or  the  many  that 
would  give  the  Bible  to  all,  because  it  is  a 
vital  benefit  for  all  ? 

In  this  case,  shall  the  conscience  of  the 
smaller  number  bind  the  conscience  of  the 
larger  ?  That  would  be  most  glaring,  absurd, 
and  iniquitous.  Shall,  then,  the  claim  of  the 
conscience  of  the  larger  number  be  admitted 
as  superior  to  the  claim  of  the  conscience  of 
the  smaller  ?  There  is  no  other  alternative  ; 
and  certainly,  in  all  reason,  if,  as  is  the 
essence  of  this  theory,  and  of  this  argument 
against  the  Bible,  you  put  both  consciences  on 
a  par,  as  to  right  and  excellence,  the  greater 
amount  of  conscience  should  weigh  against  the 
smaller.  If,  as  you  propose,  conscience  is  to 
be  respected,  then  the  greater  amount  of  con 
science  is  to  be  respected,  rather  than  the 
smaller,  and  this,  no  matter  on  what  side  the 


RIGHTS    OF  THE   MAJORITY.  63 

greater  amount  is  to  be  found.  If  it  be  found 
on  the  side  of  the  Bible,  it  ought  to  prevail  in 
the  right  to  have  the  Bible ;  if  it  be  found 
against  the  Bible,  it  ought  to  prevail  in  the 
right  to  exclude  the  Bible.  If  it  be  found  on 
the  side  of  Protestantism,  (if  you  will  force  a 
sectarian  question  into  the  public  school  sys 
tem,  as  you  are  doing,)  it  ought  to  prevail  there ; 
if  on  the  side  of  Komanism,  it  ought  to  prevail 
there.  But  it  is  those,  and  those  only,  who 
would  exclude  the  Bible,  that  have  intruded 
this  foreign  question  of  strife  and  bitterness  in 
regard  to  Eomanism  and  Protestantism;  it 
was  never  broached  before,  never  by  the 
friends  of  the  Bible,  never  by  the  founders  of 
our  school  system,  with  the  Bible  free  for  all. 
Taking  conscience,  as  your  argument  as 
sumes,  as  a  faculty  or  sense  of  moral  judg 
ment,  without  the  Bible,  irrespective  of  a 
Divine  revelation,  it  is  no  worse  for  the  ma 
jority  to  determine  in  a  matter  of  conscience, 
than  in  any  other  matter.  In  point  of  fact,  a 
conscience  uninstructed  by  the  Word  of  Grod 
does  know  majorities,  and  is  guided  and  deter 
mined  by  them. 


64      THE  JUST  PRINCIPLE  OF  SETTLEMENT. 

Hence  the  necessity  of  that  great  and  im 
pressive  command  in  the  Word  of  God,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  follow  a  multitude  to  do  evil."  So 
long  as  no  ultimate  standard  is  admitted,  (a 
non-admission  which  we  shall  show  is  the 
great  and  fatal  TIQMIOV  naeuSog  of  your  argu 
ment,)  if  the  conscience  of  the  majority  is 
agreed,  it  ought  to  determine.  If  the  con 
science  of  the  majority  is  not  agreed,  it  will 
not  be  the  majority,  and  will  not  and  cannot 
determine.  But  if  the  majority  determine 
without  any  conscience  at  all,  or  with  a  mixed 
conscience,  they  have  a  perfect  right  to  do  so, 
a  conscientious  right,  according  to  the  very 
essence  of  representative  republican  society. 
If  it  is  a  matter  that  does  not  trouble  their 
conscience,  but  their  will  and  pleasure  are  set 
upon  it  from  considerations  of  expediency  or 
otherwise,  then  their  judgment  may  be  fairly 
argued  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  and  may  be 
fairly  proposed  as  an  offset  against  the  alleged 
conscience  of  the  minority,  which,  after  all,  is 
but  a  mere  blind  judgment,  without  any  ulti 
mate  certainty.  If  you  respect  the  conscience 
of  the  minority,  or  of  any  particular  sect,  and 


EIGHTS    OF  THE   MAJOKITY.  65 

make  that  the  rule  for  the  majority,  you  may 
be,  and  are,  in  one  and  the  same  case,  going 
contrary  to  the  principle  both  of  the  majority 
and  of  conscience.  In  respecting  conscience 
in  the  minority,  because  it  is  conscience,  you 
outrage  it  in  the  majority,  whose  conscience  is 
on  the  other  side ;  and  in  respecting  conscience 
in  the  minority,  because  it  is  the  minority,  you 
outrage  both  the  civil  rights  of  the  majority 
and  conscience  at  the  same  time. 

Now,  as  to  the  case  of  Eomish  schools  under 
Komish  authority,  or  of  Jewish  schools  under 
Jewish  authority,  you  say,  Admit  that  we  have 
a  right  by  majority  to  teach  the  Bible  in  our 
schools,  they  would  also  have  the  right  by 
majority  to  teach  the  Talmud  in  their  schools. 
The  example  is  badly  chosen,  because  they  do 
not  pretend  that  the  Talmud  is  divinely  in 
spired,  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  your  propo 
sition  admits  that  it  may  be.  It  would  better 
have  been  stated  thus :  If  we  have  the  right  by 
majority  to  teach  the  New  Testament  in  our 
schools,  they  would  have  the  same  right  by 
majority  to  teach  the  Old  Testament  in  theirs. 
And  surely  they  would.  But  take  it  as  you 


66   THE  JUST  PRINCIPLE  OF  SETTLEMENT. 

state  it,  and  set  even  the  Talmud  or  the  Koran 
in  the  balance,  and  on  your  own  premises  as 
to  conscience,  they  would  have  that  right,  as 
well  as  on  the  principle  of  majority.  And  it 
would  be  the  height  of  absurdity  and  intoler 
ance  to  refuse  it.  You  are  not  obliged  to  send 
your  children  to  listen  to  the  Talmud,  if  you 
happen  to  be  living  under  a  Jewish  govern 
ment  ;  you  have  the  privilege  of  giving  them 
whatever  instruction  you  please  at  home. 

But  you  would  not  send  your  children  to 
such  a  school,  you  say, — could  not  consci 
entiously  do  it — and  therefore  you  assume  that 
it  is  wrong  to  have  such  a  school.  But  this  is 
just  setting  up  your  particular  conscience  as 
the  law  for  theirs.  And  by  what  right  could 
you  pretend  to  do  this  ?  They  have  the  right 
to  teach  the  Talmud,  both  by  majority  and  by 
conscience ;  and  are  you  to  play  the  tyrant, 
and  on  the  plea  that  your  conscience  is  out 
raged  by  their  schools,  demand  that  they 
themselves  shall  outrage  their  own  conscience 
for  your  sake,  and  banish  the  Talmud,  which 
conscience  requires  them  to  use,  because  you 
aver  that  it  is  a  pain  and  oppression  to  your 


EIGHTS    OF  THE   MAJORITY.  67 

conscience  to  hear  it  ?  This  would  be  despot 
ism  indeed.  Are  you  going  to  deny  to  a 
Jewish  government  the  right  to  appoint  the 
Talmud  in  its  schools  for  the  thousands  who 
believe  in  it,  because  you,  as  an  individual,  do 
not  wish  your  childrei  to  hear  it  ?  Yes,  you 
say,  because  you  have  to  pay  a  tax  for  the 
support  of  the  schools.  But  OR  your  own  ar 
gument  it  is  better  to  have  schools  even  with 
the  Talmud,  than  no  schools ;  so  that  no  in 
justice  is  done  you  in  taxing  you  for  that 
which  is  as  much  for  your  good  as  for  the  good 
of  society,  even  though  you  profess  yourself 
conscientiously  debarred  from  availing  your 
self  of  the  benefits  for  your  children. 

You  say  you  have  the  right  to  demand  of  the 
government  a  school  according  to  your  princi 
ples,  because  you  pay  your  tax  ;  be  it  so ;  then 
certainly  the  majority  of  tax-payers  have  the 
same  right  to  demand  a  school  according  to 
their  principles;  they  have  the  same  right 
with  yourself,  on  the  ground  of  paying  their 
tax,  to  say  what  kind  of  schools  they  shall  have. 
Are  you  ready,  by  the  fact  of  paying  your  tax, 
to  claim  the  right  of  legislating  by  your 


68      THE  JUST  PKINCIPLE  OF  SETTLEMENT. 

opinion  over  all  the  other  tax-payers  ?  Have 
you  the  right,  because  you  pay  your  tax,  to 
tell  them  that  they  shall  not  have  the  Talmud, 
which  they  conscientiously  demand,  because 
you,  a  tax-payer,  cannot  conscientiously  listen 
to  it  ?  Just  so  with  the  Koran  and  the  Mo 
hammedan.  On  your  theory,  you  would  have 
the  right  to  turn  a  whole  village  of  Moham 
medan  children  out  of  school  by  means  of  con 
science  ;  making  the  government  for  your 
sake  exclude  the  book  and  the  element,  with 
out  which  they  cannot  conscientiously  attend 
the  school  and  receive  its  benefit,  in  order  that 
your  children  may,  with  their  scrupulous  con 
sciences  unviolated,  avail  themselves  of  its 
teachings. 

It  is  then,  after  all,  the  majority  that  must 
determine,  conscience  or  no  conscience;  if  you 
have  no  ultimate  authority,  no  higher  law  than 
the  conflicting  judgment,  taste,  preferences, 
and  universally  varying  conscience  of  man 
kind.  It  is  the  majority  that  must  determine, 
unless  you  assume,  as  in  point  of  fact  your 
theory  does,  that  the  conscience  of  the  mi 
nority  ought  in  all  cases  to  prevail,  or  else  that 


RIGHTS    OF   THE   MAJORITY.  69 

the  conscience  of  some  particular  sect,  and 
that  the  smallest  and  most  pertinacious,  must 
be  the  ruling  law. 

It  cannot  be  made  to  appear  just,  that  one 
man's  tenderness  or  scrupulosity  of  conscience 
should  be  turned  into  the  means,  or  put  for 
ward  as  the  reason,  for  trampling  on  all  the 
positive  rights  of  another's  conscience.  One 
man's  preference,  in  a  benefit  to  which  he  is 
entitled,  is  not  to  be  sacrificed  to  another 
man's  aversion  ;  much  less  is  the  privilege  of 
a  whole  people  in  a  right  and  benefit  so  dear 
as  the  freedom  of  the  Word  of  God,  for  the 
education  of  their  children,  to  be  sacrificed, 
because  a  particular  sect  set  forth  the  rule  of 
their  Church  against  it,  and  threaten  to  with 
draw  their  children  from  the  schools,  if  the 
Word  of  God  be  retained  in  them.  Their 
children  need  not  be  obliged  to  use  the  Word 
of  God,  but  may  be  made  an  exception ;  no 
thing  is  easier  than  this.  But  it  is  a  piece  of 
intolerance  and  oppression  in  the  extreme,  to 
require  that  because  they  dislike  and  reject  it, 
therefore,  we  shall  not  be  permitted  to  use  it 
and  enjoy  its  light.  The  thing  is  so  mon- 


70      THE  JUST  PRINCIPLE  OF  SETTLEMENT. 

strously  absurd,  that  it  only  needs  to  be  con 
templated  as  it  is,  stripped  of  all  political  dis 
tortion  and  apology,  to  be  seen,  known,  and 
felt  in  its  deformity. 

We  are  by  no  means  without  examples  of 
just  and  wise  legislation  in  such  a  case.  Our 
government  has  had  to  deal  with  tender  con 
sciences  on  more  than  one  occasion ;  but  it 
has  not,  as  is  demanded  in  the  schools,  set  the 
example  of  intolerance  towards  all  others.  In 
the  case  of  the  oath,  it  had  to  determine  in  re 
gard  to  the  scruples  of  the  Quakers,  who  were 
conscientiously  opposed  to  taking  it.  If  the 
course  had  been  pursued  which  is  required  in 
and  for  the  schools,  at  the  dictation  of  the 
scruples  of  the  Romanists  against  the  Word 
of  God,  the  formality  of  the  oath  would  have 
been  expunged  from  existence;  its  practice 
would  have  been  forbidden.  But  instead  of 
setting  up  the  conscience  of  the  Quakers  as 
the  rule  for  all,  they  continued  the  rule,  and 
made  them  the  exception.  "  There  are  known 
denominations  of  men,"  says  Judge  Story, 
"  who  are  conscientiously  scrupulous  of  taking 
oaths,  among  which  is  that  pure  and  distin- 


EIGHTS    OF  THE   MAJORITY.  71 

guished  sect  of  Christians,  commonly  called 
Friends,  or  Quakers,  and  therefore,  to  prevent 
any  unjustifiable  exclusion  from  office,  the 
Constitution  has  permitted  a  solemn  affirmation 
to  be  made,  instead  of  an  oath,  and  as  its 
equivalent."  This  was  wise  and  just.  But 
suppose,  that  because  the  Quakers  objected  to 
the  oath  on  the  score  of  conscience,  the  Con 
stitution  had,  at  their  demand,  not  only  blot 
ted  it  out,  but  inserted  an  article  or  provision 
to  prevent  its  ever  being  taken  on  any  occa 
sion,  by  any  person.  That  would  have  been 
very  similar  to  what  is  now  demanded  in  the 
proposed  exclusion  of  the  Bible  from  the 
schools,  because  a  particular  denomination  are 
opposed  to  having  it  taught  or  recognized. 


SUPEEME 

t%rit£  anfr  ligfjt  of 

TRUTH  MORE  RIGHTFUL  THAX  ERROR. 


BUT  we  come  now  to  the  decisive  point,  that 
the  Bible  is  of  ultimate  and  universal  author 
ity  over  all  consciences  and  sects,  majorities 
or  minorities.  On  this  ground,  and  thus  only, 
can  we  clear  away  the  sophistry  that  has  been 
accumulated  as  a  chevaux-de-frise  of  prejudice 
and  confusion  around  the  question  of  a  pub 
lic  education,  free  from  "  religious  bias."  The 
Bible  is  of  no  sect,  and  belongs  to  none,  and 
may  not  be  ostracised  or  excommunicated  by 
any,  nor  rightfully  complained  of  in  any  pres 
ence,  nor  under  any  circumstances,  as  an  op 
pression  upon  any  conscience.  The  right  to 
spread  it,  and  to  teach  it,  is  from  Grod  him 
self  to  all  mankind,  and  not  from  man,  whether 


SUPREME  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.       73 

in  the  social  or  the  savage  state,  in  govern 
ments,  or  sects,  or  political  parties.  It  is 
the  exclusive  property  of  no  church,  nor  de 
nomination,  nor  ecclesiastical,  nor  civil  author 
ity. 

The  argument  to  which  we  have  referred, 
against  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  free  public 
schools,  on  the  ground  of  conscience,  con 
founds  the  claims  of  truth  and  error,  and  as 
sumes,  as  a  premise,  that  those  who  receive 
the  Word  of  God  have  no  more  right  to 
spread  that,  than  those  who  receive  the  word 
of  devils  have  authority  to  spread  that.  But 
in  regard  to  the  Bible,  as  a  revelation  from 
heaven,  for  the  guidance  and  good  of  all  man 
kind,  the  duty  of  making  it  known  is  para 
mount  to  every  other  duty ;  no  obligation 
of  conscience  to  wards  our  fellow-men  is  clearer 
than  this,  nor  can  any  supersede  it. 

The  case  stands  thus: — You  either  know 
this  book  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  or  you  do 
not ;  if  not,  then  you  are  engaged  in  a  solemn 
farce  in  teaching  it  anywhere  as  God's  Word. 
But  if  you  do  know  it  to  be  God's  Word,  then 
you  have  no  right  to  put  ^  book  of  fables  on 


74:  SUPREME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

an  equality  with  it; — you  have  no  right  to 
permit  the  plea  of  another  man's  conscience  as 
against  it,  to  prevent  you  from  circulating  it, 
wherever  you  have  the  proper  opportunity  and 
the  power.  If  you  know  this  book  to  be  the 
Word  of  God,  you  cannot,  without  a  glaring 
inconsistency,  which  is  fatal  to  the  claims  of 
God's  Word,  admit  the  conscience  of  a 
Mohammedan  or  a  Pagan  as  of  equal  author 
ity  with  the  conscience  of  a  man  instructed 
out  of  God's  Word.  The  conscience  which 
commands  the  worship  of  idols  is  not  to  be 
treated  with  the  same  respect  as  the  conscience 
which  commands  the  worship  of  God.  If  you 
say  that  it  is,  you  are  instantly  driven  to  the 
most  dreadful  conclusions,  fatal  to  the  very 
existence  of  Christian  society.  For  the  con 
science  of  a  worshipper  of  idols  may  and  does 
command  the  worshipper  to  the  commission 
of  unquestioned  crime,  as  infanticide,  or  the 
Molochism  of  the  sacrifice  of  children  even  in 
the  fire.  But,  according  to  the  theory  on 
which  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  from  the 
schools  is  defended,  the  theory  that  the  con 
science  of  an  unbeliever  in  God's  Word,  of  a 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  75 

man  who  rejects  it,  is  as  much  to  be  respected 
as  the  conscience  of  a  man  who  receives  it, 
and  is  guided  by  it,  you  have  no  right  to  re 
sist  or  to  punish  such  crime;  you  have  no 
right  even  to  legislate  against  it,  for  that  would 
be  a  violation  of  perfect  religious  equality  and 
liberty.  The  Government,  being  in  the  ma 
jority,  may  see  fit  to  oppress  and  persecute  the 
idolater  who  destroys  his  own  children,  and  to 
punish  him  as  a  murderer ;  but  on  this  theory 
they  have  no  right  to  do  it — no  more  right  to 
legislate  for  his  conscience  than  he  has  for 
their's.  The  Government  are  bound  to  pro 
tect  his  scrupulous  beliefs  and  conscientious 
rights  as  a  citizen,  a  tax-paying  citizen,  who 
cannot  enjoy  perfect  civil  liberty  without  per 
fect  religious  liberty,  nor  either,  without  liberty 
of  conscience. 

Suppose  the  conscience  of  a  person  who  has 
married  two  wives,  and  becoming  a  citizen  of 
this  nation  claims  the  common  benefits  of 
governmental  protection  and  instruction.  It 
is  an  outrage  for  the  Government  in  such  a 
case  to  proclaim  his  chosen  mode  of  domestic 
life  as  sinful,  or  to  promulgate  any  law  by 


76     SUPKEME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

which  he  would  suffer  in  that  state.     It  would 
be  an  outrage  in  the  Government,  just  because 
it  happens  to  be  in  the  majority,  to  punish  that 
man  for  bigamy ;  and  we  prove  this,  because, 
"  by  parity  of  reasoning,"  if  the  bigamists  were 
in  the  majority,  they  would  have  the  right  to 
make  a  law  in  favor  of  bigamy.     Certainly 
they  would,  on  the  principle  of  this  theory  ; 
the  same  conscientious  right,  which,  when  in 
the  minority,  it  is  affirmed  should  be  respected 
and  protected.     If  so,  then,  when  in  the  ma 
jority,  it  is  to  be  respected  and  protected  also. 
Indeed,  the   case  of  the  Mormons   would 
have  been  singularly  applicable  to  show  the 
incongruity   of   this    reasoning.      Suppose   a 
handful  of  the  followers  of  that  superstition, 
with  their  priest  and  "Book  of  the  Lord," 
should  settle  in  the  city  of  New  York.     They 
claim  the  benefits  of  governmental  protection 
in  such  wise,  that  their  scruples  of  conscience 
shall  not  be  made  the  instrument  of  their  op 
pression;    they  claim  the  privileges  of  the 
Common  Schools,  for  which  they  assert  an 
equal  right  with  all  citizens  and  tax-payers. 
But  they  find  in  the  public  school  literature 


OF  THE   BIBLE.  77 

some  scriptural  or  historical  reading  lesson 
that  condemns  their  whole  system  of  religious 
and  domestic  policy,  and  proves  it  to  be  a 
gross  and  wicked  superstition,  contrary  to  the 
Divine  Law.  How  can  they  send  their  chil 
dren  where  their  dearest  beliefs  and  conscien 
tious  scruples  are  thus  ridiculed  and  belied  ? 
They  are  oppressively  excluded  from  the  pub 
lic  schools ;  and  they  have  as  much  right  to 
complain  of  oppression  as  the  Komanist  has, 
when  the  Word  of  God  is  read  in  the  public 
schools  in  the  presence  of  his  children. 

But  we  affirm  that  neither  Mormons  nor 
Romanists  would  have  any  right  to  cut  and 
square  the  public  schools  according  to  their 
church  and  conscience.  We  affirm  that  their 
superstitions  are  not  to  be  treated  with  the 
same  respect  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  that 
they  have  not  the  same  claim  to  a  conscien 
tious  regard.  We  affirm  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  ultimate  and  absolute  truth,  and  that 
such  truth  is  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  no 
rights,  either  of  majorities  or  minorities,  either 
of  law  or  conscience,  can  be  pleaded  against 

that,  or  in  exclusion  of  it,  or  in  ban  upon  it, 

7* 


78     SUPKEME  AUTHOKITY  AND  EIGHT 

to  the  prejudice  of  its  circulation.  The  right 
to  teach  and  circulate  it,  is  the  very  first  right 
and  duty,  given  and  enjoined  with  it  from  God 
to  all  mankind.  No  man,  nor  system,  nor 
any  body  of  men,  nor  any  pretence  of  con 
science,  can  rightfully  interfere  against  it. 

And  here  we  say,  and  we  defy  any  man  on 
grounds  of  just  reasoning  to  deny  it,  that  if 
there  be  any  solemn  charge  in  regard  to  the 
children  of  the  commonwealth  resting  upon  the 
republic,  if  there  be  any  right  vested  in  the 
government  to  meddle  in  the  matter  of  educa 
tion  at  all,  it  is  the  right  and  the  duty  to  pro 
vide  the  children  with  the  Bible,  and  so  to  ar 
range  the  course  of  instruction  in  the  common 
schools,  that  they  shall  there  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Bible.  By  consent  of  all 
who  receive  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God, 
this  is  the  element  of  greater  power  and  im 
portance  than  any  other ;  and  it  is  the  para 
mount  duty  of  the  State  to  secure  it  for  the 
children.  It  is  the  one  estate  given  to  the 
children  by  the  will  of  their  Heavenly  Father ; 
it  is  an  estate  which  every  Christian  common 
wealth  is  bound  to  convey  to  the  children,  and 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  79 

to  apply  its  interest  wholly  for  their  benefit,  as 
guardians  in  trust.  That  command  by  our 
Saviour  is  binding  no  less  upon  the  State  than 
upon  the  Chistian  members  of  the  State,  "  Suf 
fer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and 
forbid  them  not  1"  But  you  do  not  sutler  them, 
you  do  in  fact  forbid  them,  if,  undertaking 
their  education,  taking  the  whole  care  of  their 
education  into  your  hands,  which,  both  in  the 
ory  and  practice,  you  do  in  the  free  common 
school  system,  you  ignore  and  exclude  the 
Bible  and  the  religious  element.  You  really 
defraud  the  children  of  their  estate  from 
Heaven.  Oh,  but  you  say,  that  is  none  of  our 
concern ;  they  can  pick  up  that  estate,  or  the 
crumbs  of  it,  anywhere;  leave  that  to  the 
catechisms.  A  more  deliberate  fraud  and 
breach  of  trust  was  never  committed  than  is 
involved  in  this  course. 

The  Bible  is  unsectarian  and  pure  light 
The  sectarian  schools  distribute  it  as  through  a 
prism,  but  the  common  school  takes  it  from 
the  sun,  admits  the  sun's  light,  hangs  up  the 
sun  itself  within  the  school-house.  Now,  you 
might  as  well  shut  out  the  sun-light,  and  light 


80    SUPREME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

up  your  school-houses  at  noonday  with  gas 
because  there  are  prisms,  as  exclude  the  Bible 
because  there  are  various  sects.  In  fact,  we 
have  no  more  right  to  exclude  the  Bible  than 
we  have  to  exclude  the  sun,  for  they  are  both 
God's  provision  of  light  for  us.  We  have  no 
more  right  to  exclude  the  Bible  from  the 
schools,  and  from  the  use  of  our  children  in 
them,  than  we  have  to  exclude  the  common 
air,  and  to  pass  a  law  that  the  children,  while 
in  the  schools,  shall  breathe  nothing  but  sul 
phuretted  hydrogen,  or  exhilarating  gas. 

Indeed,  this  universality  of  the  sun-light,  as 
opposed  to  any  monopolies,  affords  us  a  good 
illustration.  Let  us  suppose  the  Manhattan 
Gas  Company  to  enter  a  conscientious  plea 
against  the  sun-light  in  our  school-houses,  on 
the  ground  that  the  use  of  the  sunlight  pre 
vents  the  use  of  their  gas,  and  consequently 
deprives  them  of  the  benefit  that  might  accrue 
to  them  and  their  families  from  a  monopoly 
of  light.  Besides,  they  have  among  them 
selves  a  church  canon,  interdicting  their  own 
families  from  the  use  of  any  light  but  the 
company's  gas.  Under  these  circumstances, 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  81 

the  sun-light  becomes  Protestant  light,  for  all 
except  those  connected  with  the  company,  and 
under  its  authority,  protest  against  the  monop 
oly  of  light ;  ergo,  the  sun-light  is  Protestant 
light,  and  it  is  against  their  consciences  to  en 
dure  it,  or  to  permit  the  use  of  it ;  and  though 
they  wish  to  send  their  children  to  the  public 
schools,  yet  they  are  prevented  from  that  priv 
ilege,  if  the  children  are  compelled  to  read  by 
sun -light ;  they  cannot  conscientiously  put  their 
children  under  any  light  but  that  of  the  com 
pany's  gas.  By  that  light,  they  may  read  and 
study  arithmetic,  history,  and  even  Martin 
Luther's  character,  and  what  not,  but  never  by 
the  Protestant  sun-light.  Whose  picture  is 
this,  the  counterfeit  presentment  of  what 
faith? 

And  now  suppose  you  make  a  compromise, 
and  say  to  them :  well,  to  make  all  fair,  you 
shall  have  the  privilege  of  introducing  the  gas 
light  for  your  children,  but  at  the  same  time 
the  sun-light  shall  come  in  also,  so  that  all  may 
be  satisfied.  Ah,  but  that  will  not  answer ; 
the  sun-light  must  not  be  let  in  at  all,  for 
wherever  it  is,  it  absolutely  puts  theirs  out. 


82          SUPEEME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

'Tis  of  no  use  whatever,  they  say,  to  attempt 
a  competition ;  it  is  a  gone  case  with  us,  if  the 
sun-light  is  let  in  at  all.  Our  gas  in  compe 
tition  with  the  sun?  "Why,  the  children 
would  read  on,  and  read  on,  and  not  even 
know  that  our  gas  was  lighted. 

"Well !  so  it  is,  in  very  truth,  and  we  cannot 
help  it,  that  the  Bible  really  does  give  so  clear 
and  beautiful,  so  pure  and  powerful  a  light, 
that  all  other  lights  beside  it  are  but  winking 
tapers,  and  you  can  scarcely  even  see  that  they 
are  lighted.  In  the  language  of  Cowper's  ex 
quisitely  beautiful  hymn, 

A  Glory  gilds  the  sacred  page, 

Majestic  like  the  sun  ; 
It  give  a  light  to  every  age, 

It  gives,  but  borrows  none. 

Kay,  according  to  God's  own  declaration 
concerning  it,  you  determine  by  it  infallibly 
what  is  light,  and  whether  other  things  pro 
posed  as  light  are  not  darkness.  "In  thy 
light,  shall  we  see  light."  We  shall  see  and 
know  what  the  true  light  is,  and  not  be  im 
posed  upon. 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  83 

This  common,  all  surrounding,  vital  air  is 
not  more  my  right  to  breathe,  and  yours,  and 
all  men's,  than  this  air  of  Divine  Truth,  which 
is  to  the  life  and  healthful  movement  of  the 
soul,  what  the  air  is  to  the  lungs,  to  the  blood, 
and  to  the  life  \>f  the  body.  You  have  no 
more  right  to  interdict  this  atmosphere  of  Di 
vine  Truth,  than  you  have  to  interdict  the  pure 
air  of  Heaven  from  our  school  houses.  Nor 
is  an  imperfect  or  vicious  ventilation  so  bad 
for  the  body,  as  the  interdiction  of  the  fresh 
air  of  truth  is  pernicious  to  the  soul.  Stifle 
out  of  it  all  religious  truth,  and  it  will  die,  not 
of  suffocation  merely,  but  of  poison  with  ma 
lignant  error.  Shall  this  be  the  treatment  of 
the  millions  of  youthful  immortal  creatures 
crowded  in  our  common  schools  as  in  a  dun 
geon  ?  No,  no,  no  !  but  let  all  the  windows, 
as  in  a  clear  summer's  day  in  the  country,  be 
thrown  wide  open,  and  let  the  sweet  breath 
from  every  wind  of  Heaven  flow  through, 
joyful,  balmy,  exhilarating.  Let  the  gladsome 
troops  of  children  breathe  freely,  and  not  be 
gin  their  first  rudiments  of  knowledge  by  try 
ing  how  far  they  can  be  stifled,  and  still  live. 


84          SUPKEME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

This  common,  all-shining  sun  is  no  more  my 
right  to  see  by,  to  have  its  cheerful  beams  pour 
warm  and  bright  upon  me,  wherever  in  the 
world  I  am,  than  this  Sun  of  God's  Truth  in 
his  Word  is  my  right  of  conscience  and  of 
heavenly  life.  This  Sun  of 'truth  is  as  truly 
the  possession  of  all  mankind,  and  the  gift  of 
God  for  the  race,  as  the  sun  in  the  heavens, 
and  as  necessary  for  the  light  and  life  of  the 
soul  as  the  sun  for  the  light  and  life  of  the 
body.  "Who  dare  interdict  the  sun  from  shin 
ing,  or  men  from  looking  at  his  light  ?  What 
vain  Canute  would  lift  his  puny  sceptre  to  that 
orb,  and  say,  as  Lucifer  from  Hell,  I  speak  to 
thee,  0  Sun,  only  to  tell  thee  how  I  hate  thy 
beams !  And  is  it  less  a  blasphemous  defiance 
of  God  to  interdict  his  Word,  and  to  say  to 
the  creatures  for  whom  it  was  given,  ye  shall 
not  enjoy  it  ?  This  Word  of  God  is  as  neces 
sary  for  our  perception  of  moral  truth,  as  the 
sun  is  necessary  for  our  perception  of  colors 
in  nature;  it  is  as  essential  for  the  growth  of 
true  moral  principle,  and  the  right  develop 
ment  of  our  immortal  being,  as  the  light  of 
the  sun  is  necessary  for  the  growth  of  plants, 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  85 

fruits,  and  flowers.  When  the  sun  goes  down 
in  either  case,  it  is  night,  and  all  the  beasts  of 
the  earth  come  forth  from  their  hiding  places. 
What  infinite  madness  to  introduce  into  the 
constitution  and  custom  or  common  law  of  our 
school  system  as  one  of  its  guiding  central 
principles,  the  exclusion  of  Divine  light !  If 
the  country  were  bent  on  self-destruction,  it 
could  hardly  discover  a  subtler  and  surer  mode 
of  suicide.  Volcanoes  and  earthquakes  are 
said  to  have  been  heralded  by  the  drying  up 
of  wells ;  and  so,  there  is  no  convulsion  or 
evil  which  may  not  be  apprehended,  if  from 
the  fountains  of  our  common  education,  the 
elements  of  Divine  truth  are  drawn  away ;  it 
would  be  the  most  certain  prophecy  of  evil. 

Now,  \f  we  take  simply  the  ground  of  the 
great  command  of  God  and  our  conscience, 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  on 
that  ground,  whatever  we  find  to  be  essential 
to  our  own  life  and  welfare  as  human  beings, 
we  are  bound  to  give  to  others,  if  we  have  it 
in  our  power.  If  the  Word  of  God  is  dear  to 
us,  and  we  know  it  to  be  essential  to  salvation, 
we  are  bound  to  give  it  to  others ;  if  necessary 


86    SUPREME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

to  me  as  an  individual,  I  have  no  more  right 
to  it  myself  than  I  have  to  communicate  it  to 
others ;  both  the  right  and  the  duty  are  incon 
trovertible.  Neither  man,  nor  men,  nor  gov 
ernments,  nor  hierarchies,  have  any  more  right 
to  say  to  me,  You  shall  not  spread  the  Word 
of  God,  than  they  would  have  to  say  to  me, 
You  shall  not  give  a  morsel  of  bread  to  the 
wretch  whom  you  see  dying  of  hunger.  It  is 
both  my  right  and  my  duty  from  God. 

But  not  only  is  it  mine,  but  of  humanity,  of 
nations,  of  all  mankind.  And  whatever  coun 
try,  or  people,  set  up  enactments  against  this 
right  and  duty,  they  are,  so  far,  outlawed  of 
God  and  of  conscience,  and  such  enactments 
are  not  to  be  regarded  in  the  least.  Any  na 
tion,  and  any  church,  that  makes  the  use,  en 
joyment,  and  distribution  of  the  Word  of  God 
a  crime,  is  out  of  the  pale  of  international  law 
and  of  human  right,  and  against  it,  and  ought 
to  be  treated  accordingly.  We  like  the  lan 
guage  of  Captain  Packenham,  of  the  English 
Navy,  that  energetic  and  fearless  soldier  of 
Christ,  who  undertook  to  distribute  Bibles  and 
religious  truth  in  Italy.  "  It  is  time,"  says  he, 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  87 

speaking  of  the  case  of  Miss  Cunninghame's 
imprisonment  and  release  by  the  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  "that  our  rights  should  be  acknowl 
edged  and  respected.  Let  it  be  known  that 
we  are  not  to  receive  as  a  grace,  that  which 
justice  demands  as  a  right.  It  is  time  that 
diplomacy  cease  to  sue  in  forma  pauperis,  and 
that  individual  favoritism,  however  arrived  at, 
give  place  to  a  well  understood,  authoritative 
demand,  so  well  expressed  in  our  royal  motto, 
God  and  our  right.  It  is  time  to  say  to  this 
manufactory  of  delinquencies  and  crimes,  this 
modern  inquisition,  Stop  !  Whatever  be  not 
really  a  crime,  your  pigmy,  paltry,  Papal 
legislation  shall  not  make  one ;  and  if  you 
dare  to  punish  a  free-born  subject  of  England, 
by  the  application  of  your  penal  proclamations 
or  processes,  you  shall  repent  it  quickly." 

Clearly,  this  is  the  only  right  and  safe  posi 
tion.  Christianity,  based  upon  the  Word  of 
God,  is  the  gift  of  God  to  all,  and  as  it  re 
spects  Europe,  it  is  the  profession  of  all 
nations.  Shall  any  then  dare,  or  shall  they 
be  permitted,  to  make  it  a  crime  to  circulate 
the  Word  of  God  ?  This  is  the  common 


SUPREME  AUTHORITY  AND  RIGHT 

right  of  all  to  whom  that  Word  comes,  and 
the  prohibition  of  it  by  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church,  in  Tuscany,  for  example — Church 
and  State  being  one — is  well  set  forth  as  being 
a  complete  self-condemnation,  a  demonstration 
of  not  being  within  the  pale  of  true  Christi 
anity.  It  is  a  glaring  syllogism,  fiery  red 
with  shame.  To  circulate  any  book  which 
is  contrary  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  religion  is 
made  a  legal  crime.  But  to  circulate  the 
"Word  of  God  is  prohibited  as  such  a  crime, 
and  an  English  lady  was  thrown  into  prison 
for  doing  it.  Consequently,  the  "Word  of 
God  is  clearly  proclaimed  as  being  contrary 
to  the  Eoman  Catholic  religion.  This  is  the 
inevitable  logic  of  the  Government  of  the 
Duke  of  Tuscany. 

But  with  this  particular  conclusion  of 
the  Duke's  logic,  we  need  not  now  con 
cern  ourselves  ;  the  point  in  view  is  the  in 
iquity  of  its  application — the  injustice  of 
any  law  or  laws  against  the  Word  of  God, 
forbidding  its  use  and  circulation.  Even  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Eomish  Church,  the  very 
first  translators  of  the  Scriptures  into  English 


OF  THE   BIBLE.  8\) 

felt  this.  When  the  youthful  Tyndale  began 
first  to  have  his  eyes  opened  to  the  truth,  and 
to  form  the  purpose,  by  God's  blessing,  in 
after  years,  to  give  the  Word  of  God  in  Eng 
lish  to  the  people,  he  saw  that  it  was  the  right 
of  all  mankind,  for  that  it  was  the  gift  of  God 
to  all.  The  indignant  speeches  that  fell  from 
him,  even  then,  exposed  him  to  danger.  Tn 
controversy  with  an  ignorant  JRomish  eccle 
siastic,  he  one  day  said,  "  If  God  spare  my  life, 
ere  many  years  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  drivetn 
the  plow,  to  know  more  of  the  Scripture  than 
you  do."  But  how  were  the  plowboys  to 
know  it,  if  it  should  be  excluded  by  law  from 
the  system  of  education,  on  pretence  of  liber 
ality  of  conscience  ?  In  vain  would  the  noble 
Tyndale's  prophecy  have  been  fulfilled,  and 
his  mission-task  performed  and  sealed  with 
martyrdom,  for  the  plow-boys  of  his  country, 
if  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  was  to  be 
excluded  from  the  schools,  as  a  sectarian  book, 
or  forbidden,  on  the  plea  of  its  going  against 
the  Eomish  conscience. 
8* 


jrf  lclitts  Virata 


OPINION    OF    MR.    WEBSTER. 


"THE  Government,"  says  Hugh  Miller, 
"that  should  imprison  with  punishment  or 
death  the  man  whose  only  crime  was,  that  he 
had  given  a  morsel  of  bread  to  a  dying 
beggar,  or  rescued  some  unhappy  human 
being  who  was  in  danger  of  perishing  in  the 
pit  into  which  he  had  fallen,  would  be  held  to 
have  violated  the  rights  of  man,  if  the  person 
so  punished  was  a  subject  of  its  own,  and  the 
rights  of  nations,  if  he  was  the  subject  of  an 
other  State.  But  does  not  that  Government 
as  really  violate  the  rights  of  man,  and  the 
laws  of  Christian  nations,  which  says,  you 
shall  not  give  a  copy  of  the  Bible  to  a  human 
being,  however  desirous  he  may  be  to  know 
the  will  of  his  Maker,  and  however  much  he 


KELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  BY  THE  STATE.        91 

may  feel  that  his  eternal  welfare  depends  on 
knowing  that  will?  The  Government  that 
should  act  thus  would  so  violate  the  first 
right  of  conscience  and  the  first  duties  of  man, 
and  so  uproot  the  foundations  of  society,  as  to 
place  itself  beyond  the  pale  of  civilized 

i 

nations  ;  it  ought  to  be  declared  an  outlaw, — 
a  nation  at  war  with  the  eternal  principles  of 
duty  and  right,  and  entitled  to  exact  no  re 
gard  or  obedience  to  its  laws." 

Now,  let  us  just  apply  these  principles  to 
the  right  and  duty  of  providing  the  children 
in  our  common  schools  with  the  Word  of 
God,  and  with  the  religious  instruction  they 
may  receive  from  it,  and  thus  judge  and  de 
termine  the  iniquity  of  any  statute  for  the  ex 
clusion  of  the  Bible.  Such  a  statute,  whether 
in  legislative  act  and  form,  or  merely  the  force 
of  prejudice  and  custom  wrought  into  a  com 
mon  law,  would  be  glaringly  inconsistent  with 
the  duty  of  the  State,  and  with  our  rights  as 
individuals.  And  what  an  incongruity  would 
it  present,  while  the  common  law  of  the  State 
is  based  upon  Christianity,  and  in  favor  of  it, 
to  have  the  common  law  of  the  schools  ex- 


92  RIGHT  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

eluding  it,  and  so  in  reality  against  it.  The 
argument  by  which  the  opponents  of  the 
Bible,  in  schools,  would  support  their  views, 
goes  the  whole  length  of  denying  to  the  State 
the  right  of  religious  instruction,  because  it  is 
asserted  to  be  an  oppression  of  the  conscience. 
And  the  demand  is  made  of  a  wholesale  ex 
clusion  of  all  religious  bias,  because  otherwise 
the  State  cannot  be  impartial  to  her  children. 
But  let  us  hear  the  voice  of  some  of  our 
greatest  and  wisest  statesmen  on  this  matter. 

In  speaking  on  the  subject  of  taxation  for 
public  education,  Mr.  Webster  once  said : 
"We  seek  to  prevent,  in  some  measure,  the 
extension  of  the  penal  code,  by  inspiring  a 
salutary  and  conservative  principle  of  virtue 
and  of  knowledge  in  an  early  age.  By  gen 
eral  instruction,  we  seek  as  far  as  possible  to 
purify  the  whole  moral  atmosphere ;  to  keep 
good  sentiment  uppermost,  and  to  turn  the 
strong  current  of  feeling  and  opinion,  as  well 
as  the  censures  of  the  law  and  the  denun 
ciations  of  religion,  against  immorality  anc 
crime.  We  hope  for  a  security  beyond  the 
law,  and  above  the  law,  in  the  prevalence  of 


BY   THE   STATE.  93 

enlightened  and  well-principled  moral  senti 
ment.  We  hope  to  continue  and  to  prolong 
the  time,  when  in  the  villages  and  farm-houses 
of  New  England  there  may  be  undisturbed 
sleep  within  unbarred  doors." 

Mr.  Webster  was  a  man  that  weighed  his 
words.  And  now  in  perusing  the  succeeding 
paragraph,  let  it  be  remembered  that  this 
speech  was  on  an  occasion  that  demanded  the 
greatest  solidity  and  accuracy  in  the  formation 
and  expression  of  his  views,  being  no  less  im 
portant  than  the  revision  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  His  opinions 
were,  therefore,  deliberate  and  well  considered, 
and  they  are  decisive  as  to  the  power  and 
duty  of  the  State  to  provide  a  religious  edu 
cation  for  her  children,  if  an  education  at  all. 

"  I  rejoice  that  every  man  in  this  community 
can  call  all  property  his  own,  so  far  as  he  has 
occasion  for  it  to  furnish  for  himself  and  his 
children  the  blessings  of  religious  instruction, 
and  the  elements  of  knowledge.  This  celes 
tial  and  this  earthly  light  he  is  entitled  to  by 
the  fundamental  laws.  It  is  every  poor  man's 
undoubted  birthright ;  it  is  the  great  blessing 


94  EIGHT  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

which  this  Constitution  has  secured  to  him ; 
it  is  his  solace  in  life,  and  it  may  well  be  his 
consolation  in  death,  that  his  country  stands 
pledged  by  the  faith  which  it  has  plighted  to 
all  its  citizens,  to  protect  his  children  from 
ignorance,  barbarism,  and  vice." 

These  are  noble  words,  and  the  speech 
bears  the  stamp  of  Webster's  magnificent  mind. 
The  children  of  the  State  are  entitled  by  the 
fundamental  law  to  a  celestial  as  well  as 
earthly  light,  and  to  the  blessings  of  religious 
instruction,  as  well  as  the  elements  of  other 
knowledge.  The  assertion  would  seem  a  tru 
ism  ;  and  yet  we  are  aware  of  the  plausible 
sophistry  with  which  a  decision  right  the  re 
verse  is  maintained  in  some  quarters,  and  pro 
posed  as  a  fundamental  school  law ;  the  deci 
sion  to  exclude  all  celestial  light  as  sectarian, 
and  all  religious  instruction  as  an  oppression 
of  the  conscience. 

But  if  the  State  undertake  to  educate  the 
children  at  all,  is  it  not  under  obligation  to 
give  them  as  good  an  education  as  they  can 
get  elsewhere  ?  If  the  State  tax  its  citizens 
for  the  expenses  of  su^h  an  education,  does  it 


BY  THE   STATE.  95 

not  stand  pledged  to  teach  the  children  of  the 
citizens  all  that  is  essential  to  their  welfare  ? 
Is  it  a  fulfilment  of  that  pledge  to  say  that 
they  may  get  religious  instruction  elsewhere, 
but  that  the  State  shall  not  provide  that  vital 
element,  for  fear  of  sectarianism  ?  May  get  it 
elsewhere  I  And  who  stands  responsible  for 
the  consequences,  if  they  should  not? 


i\t  Cumnwn  Inlteritana  at  t\t 
main. 


OPINION    OF   JUSTICE    STORY. 

IN  dwelling  on  the  liberty  of  speech,  and 
the  importance  of  securing  it,  that  great  writer 
on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Judge 
Story,  remarks  :  "  It  is  notorious  that  even  to 
this  day,  in  some  foreign  countries,  it  is  a 
crime  to  speak  on  any  subject,  religious,  phi 
losophical,  or  political,  what  is  contrary  to  the 
received  opinions  of  the  Government,  or  the 
institutions  of  the  country,  however  laudable 
may  be  the  design,  and  however  virtuous  may 
be  the  motive.  Even  to  animadvert  upon  the 
conduct  of  public  men,  of  rulers,  or  of  repre 
sentatives,  in  terms  of  the  strictest  truth  and 
courtesy,  has  been  and  is  deemed  a  scandal 
upon  the  supposed  sanctity  of  their  stations 
and  characters,  subjecting  the  party  to  griev- 


THE   BIBLE.  97 

ous  punishment.  In  some  countries  no  works 
can  be  printed  at  all,  whether  of  science,  or 
literature,  or  philosophy,  without  the  previous 
approbation  of  the  Government ;  and  the  press 
has  been  shackled,  and  compelled  to  speak 
only  in  the  timid  language  which  the  cringing 
courtier,  or  the  capricious  inquisitor  has  been 
willing  to  license  for  publication.  The  Bible 
itself,  the  common  inheritance,  not  merely  of 
Christendom,  but  of  the  world,  has  been  put 
exclusively  under  the  control  of  Government ; 
and  has  not  been  allowed  to  be  seen,  or  heard, 
or  read,  except  in  a  language  unknown  to  the 
common  inhabitants  of  the  country.  To 
publish  a  translation  in  the  vernacular  tongue, 
has  been  in  former  times  a  flagrant  of 
fence."* 

This  is  an  impressive  passage,  which,  like 
many  others  that  might  be  pointed  out,  must, 
as  a  legitimate  consequence  of  the  exclusion 
of  the  Bible  and  all  religious  truth  from  our 
Common  School  system,  be  obliterated  from 
our  school  literature.  The  Eoman  Catholic 
Church  can  no  more  permit  the  Bible  to  be 

*  Story  on  the  Constitution,  p.  263. 
9 


93        THE  BIBLE  THE  COMMON  INHERITANCE 

spoken  of  as  the  common  inheritance  of  Chris 
tendom  and  of  the  world  in  the  volumes  of  the 
District  School  Library,  than  it  can  permit  the 
Bible  to  be  read  in  the  common  schools. 
And  the  theory  that  there  must  be  no  religious 
bias  in  the  schools  will  operate  with  an  equally 
fatal  logical  destructiveness  to  the  obliteration 
of  thousands  of  instructive  pages  in  the  estab 
lished  common  school  literature.  There  can, 
indeed,  be  no  such  thing  as  freedom  in  that 
literature  on  this  theory ;  and  restrictions 
which  Judge  Story  points  out  as  criminal  and 
disgraceful  in  other  countries,  and  destructive 
of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  would  be  found  realized 
in  this. 

It  is  a  true  and  noble  expression,  in  which 
Judge  Story  has  characterized  the  Bible.    THE 

COMMON    INHERITANCE  OF   CHRISTENDOM  AND 

OF  THE  WORLD.  It  is  an  expression  that  ac 
cords  with  that  of  the  divinely  inspired  Legis 
lator,  when  he  said :  "  The  things  that  are  re 
vealed  belong  to  us  AND  TO  OUR  CHILDREN 
forever." 

The  question  may  be  asked,  Are  the  chil 
dren  of  Christendom  alone, — those  gathered 


OF   THE   WORLD.  99 

in  a  system  of  Common  School  education — to 
be  excluded  from  the  possession  and  benefit 
of  this  inheritance?  Are  the  children, — 
those  persons  whom  the  State  designates  as 
entitled  to  the  privileges  of  an  education,  say 
during  the  period  between  six  years  of  age 
and  twenty, — a  part  of  Christendom,  or  does 
this  common  inheritance  belong  only  to  per 
sons  who  are  not  minors  ?  Are  they  alone  to 
be  regarded  as  capable  of  this  freedom  ?  Must 
this  common  inheritance  be  shut  out  from  the 
knowledge  of  all  for  whom  the  State  under 
takes  to  provide  an  education,  until  the  period 
when  that  education  is  finished  ?  Or  say  from 
the  knowledge  of  those,  who  have  no  other 
schools  or  teachings  than  those  which  the 
State  furnishes,  and  no  means  of  gaining  any 
other  education  ? 

THE  COMMON  INHERITANCE  OF  CHRISTEN 
DOM  AND  OF  THE  WORLD  ! — Then  those  who 
would  conceal  and  withdraw  it  from  the  world 
— those  who  would  put  it  under  ban,  restraint, 
imprisonment — those  who  forbid  it  to  be  read, 
are  the  common  pirates  and  highway  robbers 
of  Christendom  and  the  world.  They  might, 


100      THE  BIBLE  THE  COMMON  INHERITANCE 

with  as  much  propriety,  dispute  the  common 
highway  of  the  seas.  The  principles  em 
braced  in  this  just  view  of  the  universality, 
supremacy,  and  freedom  of  the  Bible  for  all 
.mankind,  are  fundamental,  and  of  the  greatest 
importance  in  relation  to  the  claim  to  govern 
mental  and  international  protection  on  the  part 
of  those  who  undertake  the  spreading  of  the 
Scriptures.  Our  country's  authority  and 
power  may  justly  be  exerted  to  shield  to  the 
uttermost  those  who  are  engaged  in  carrying 
the  Bible  to  other  lands.  We  may  rightfully 
demand,  from  all  nations,  this  privilege  of 
freely  circulating  the  Word  of  God,  and  that 
reciprocity  of  religious  liberty  which  we  give 
to  all,  and  which,  by  international  law,  we  main 
tain  in  the  concerns  of  our  commercial  policy. 
THE  COMMON  INHERITANCE  OF  CHRISTEN 
DOM  AND  OF  THE  WORLD  ! — Let  not,  then, 
our  own  free  country  submit  to  the  exclusion 
of  it,  at  the  instigation  of  a  sect,  from  the 
public  schools,  those  foundations  of  pure  and 
virtuous  opinion.  Let  us  not  set  the  example 
to  Christendom  and  the  world,  of  treating  the 
Bible  as  a  sectarian  book,  a  book  that  must  be 


OF  THE   WORLD.  101 

excluded  because  it  is  religious  and  teaches 
religion,  which  its  adversaries  assume  that  it 
is  no  function  of  the  Government  to  do.  But 
if  the  Government  undertake  to  provide  for 
the  children  an  education  in  all  things  essential 
to  their  well-being  as  citizens,  it  cannot  right 
fully  omit  some  provision  of  knowledge  in  re 
gard  to  religion.  This  may  be  maintained  as 
an  indisputable  axiom. 

"The  right  of  a  society  or  Government," 
says  Judge  Story,  "  to  interfere  in  matters  of 
religion,  will  hardly  be  contested  by  any  per 
sons,  who  believe  that  piety,  religion,  and 
morality,  are  intimately  connected  with  the 
well-being  of  the  State,  and  indispensable  to 
the  administration  of  civil  j  ustice.  The  pro 
mulgation  of  the  great  doctrines  of  religion, 
the  being  and  attributes  and  providence  of 
one  Almighty  God  ;  the  responsibility  to  Him 
for  all  our  actions,  founded  upon  moral  ac 
countability  ;  a  future  state  of  rewards  and 
punishments ;  the  cultivation  of  all  the  per 
sonal,  social,  and  benevolent  virtues; — these 
can  never  be  a  matter  of  indifference  in  any 
well-ordered  community.  It  is,  indeed,  dim"- 


102      THE  BIBLE  THE  COMMON  INHERITANCE 

cult  to  conceive  liow  any  civilized  society  can 
well  exist  without  them.  And,  at  all  events, 
it  is  impossible  for  those  who  believe  in  the 
truth  of  Christianity  as  a  Divine  revelation, 
to  doubt  that  it  is  the  especial  duty  of  Govern 
ment  to  foster  and  encourage  it  among  all  the 
citizens  and  subjects.  This  is  a  point  wholly 
distinct  from  that  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment  in  matters  of  religion  and  of  the 
freedom  of  public  worship,  according  to  the 
dictates  of  one's  conscience."* 

These  sentiments  are  accordant  with  those 
of  the  wisest  statesmen  and  purest  patriots  of 
our  country,  from  the  days  of  Washington  to 
this  hour.  We  could  not  desire  a  more  com 
plete  and  explicit  description  of  the  kind  and 
degree  of  religious  instruction  which  may  be 
demanded  and  expected  from  the  Govern 
ment  in  a  system  of  free  common  school  edu 
cation.  The  truths  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
for  the  inculcation  of  which  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  State  to  provide  in  such  a  system,  and  for 
the  provision  of  which,  according  to  Mr. 
Webster,  the  State,  in  undertaking  &  system 

*  Story  on  the  Constitution,  p.  260. 


OF  THE   WOELD.  103 

of  education,  and  taxing  the  people  for  it,  has 
plighted  its  faith  to  all  its  citizens,  are  such, 
that  truly,  in  the  language  of  Judge  Story, 
"it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  any  civilized 
society  can  exist  without  them."  They  are  re 
ligious  truths,  and  cannot  possibly  be  taught 
at  all  without  a  religious  bias ;  yet  they  are 
not  sectarian,  nor  can  any  provision  against 
sectarianism  be  made  to  touch  them,  nor  any 
sectarian  jealousy  rightfully  exclude  them. 
Nevertheless,  the  assumptions  in  the  argument 
against  the  Bible  in  schools  would  shut  them 
out  completely. 


f  0lirjr  0f  tip  fetasi0n  0f  gdigiw. 


OPINION  OF  WASHINGTON,  AND  OF  THE  FEAMERS 
OF  THE  CONSTITUTION. 

THE  endeavor  to  exclude  religion  and  a 
"  religious  bias"  from  our  character  and  policy 
as  a  government  and  a  nation,  is  a  dangerous 
and  alarming  effort.  The  exclusion  of  the 
Bible  from  our  common  school  system,  on  the 
ground  that  no  "  religious  bias"  should  be  ad 
mitted  there,  would  be  a  fatal  policy.  This 
movement  appears  in  strong  and  melancholy 
contrast  with  the  advice  of  Washington,  and 
with  the  sentiments  and  measures  of  the  fram- 
ers  of  our  country's  Constitution.  In  his 
Farewell  Address,  Washington  uttered  the 
following  warnings :  "  Of  all  the  dispositions 
and  habits  which  lead  to  political  prosperity, 
Beligion  and  Morality  are  indispensable  sup 
ports.  In  vain  would  that  man  claim  the 


THE   EXCLUSION   OF   RELIGION.          105 

tribute  of  patriotism,  who  should  labor  to  sub 
vert  these  great  pillars  of  human  happiness, 
these  purest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and 
citizens.  The  mere  politician,  equally  with 
the  pious  man,  ought  to  respect  and  cherish 
them.  A  volume  could  not  trace  all  their 
connections  with  private  and  public  felicity. 
Let  it  simply  be  asked,  Where  is  the  security 
for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life,  if  the 
sense  of  religious  obligation  desert  the  oaths, 
which  are  the  instruments  of  investigation  in 
Courts  of  Justice  ?  And  let  us  with  caution 
indulge  the  supposition  that  morality  can  be 
maintained  without  religion.  Whatever  may 
be  conceded  to  the  influence  of  refined  educa 
tion  on  minds  of  peculiar  structure,  reason 
and  experience  both  forbid  us  to  expect  that 
national  morality  can  prevail  in  exclusion  of 
religious  principle," 

Now,  have  our  public  schools  anything  to 
do  with  our  national  morality,  or  have  they 
not?  If  they  have,  then  how  can  they  be 
preserved  as  safe  instrumentalities  in  the  form* 
ation  of  our  national  character  and  habits, 
without  religious  principle,  "in  exclusion  of 


106  FATAL   POLICY 

religious  principle"  ?  But  what  more  complete 
and  perfect  exclusion  of  religious  principle, 
than  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  as  a  sectarian 
book  ?  And  what  could  lay  a  broader  foun 
dation  for  national  infidelity  and  immorality, 
than  such  an  excommunication  of  the  Word 
of  God? 

The  opinion  of  the  framers  of  our  Constitu 
tion  may  be  known  from  the  following  sentence 
in  the  fourth  article  in  the  ordinance  for  the 
government  of  the  North-west  Territory,  *'  Ke- 
ligion,  morality,  and  knowledge,  being  neces 
sary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education 
shall  forever  be  encouraged."  Eeligion,  then, 
as  well  as  morality  and  knowledge,  was,  in  the 
opinion  of  these  statesmen,  an  end  to  be  ac 
complished  by  the  schools,  and,  of  course,  relig 
ion  was  to  be  taught  in  them.  Indeed,  they 
were  of  the  same  opinion  with  "Washington, 
that  morality  itself  cannot  be  maintained 
without  religion.  How  different  from  these 
just  sentiments,  how  opposed  to  them,  is  the 
rule  asserted  in  these  modern  days,  at  the  in 
stigation  of  a  sect,  that  an  impartial  system  of 


OF  THE  EXCLUSION  OF  RELIGION.        107 

public  education  must  be  free  from  any  relig 
ious  bias.  What  a  vast  distance  from  the 
opinions  and  feelings  of  our  fathers  we  must 
have  wandered,  to  accept  of  such  a  canon  as 
the  basis  of  our  public  schools. 

There  cannot  be  such  a  thing  as  true  relig 
ion  without  a  religious  bias,  nor  such  a  thing 
as  a  religious  bias  without  a  bias  towards  relig 
ion.  The  religion  which  our  forefathers  con 
templated  and  intended  as  being  taught  in  the 
common  schools,  was  certainly  not  indifference 
to  all  religion,  nor  the  treating  of  all  religions 
as  alike,  nor  the  studied  and  formal  rejection 
of  the  Word  of  God.  This  is  not  the  way  to 
produce  a  religious  influence,  nor  the  way  to 
teach  either  religion  or  morality ;  but  it  is  in 
speaking  of  education  particularly,  that  Wash 
ington  declared,  that  reason  and  experience 
forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  morality  can 
prevail  in  exclusion  of  religious  principle. 
But  if  you  have  a  studied  exclusion  of  every 
thing  distinctively  religious,  if  you  forbid  any 
religious  bias  to  such  a  degree  as  to  shut  out 
the  Bible  itself,  on  the  ground  that  nothing 
distinctively  religious  must  be  admitted,  you 


108  FATAL  POLICY 

render  the  teaching  of  religious  principle  in 
the  schools  impossible,  you  exclude  every 
reference  to  religion,  every  acknowledgment 
of  Christianity. 

You  not  only  ignore  the  existence  of  re 
ligious  principle,  but  you  guard  against  it,  you 
fend  it  off,  you  mark  it  as  you  would  a  wild 
beast  or  a  pestilence.  The  indulgence'  of  a 
boa-constrictor,  or  of  the  small-pox  among  the 
children,  could  not  be  more  jealously  for 
bidden.  In  this  respect,  your  schools  are  like 
an  Oriental  harem  ;  the  very  appearance  of  the 
slippers  of  religion  indicates  the  presence  of  a 
criminal,  and  the  vigilant  eunuchs  are  upon 
you  with  the  bow*string — a  Koman  bow-string 
for  the  Bible  I  Is  this  the  condition  to  which 
the  school  system  of  a  generation  but  one  re 
move  from  Washington  and  our  revolutionary 
fathers  is  to  be  reduced,  at  the  inquisitorial 
dictatorship  of  Eomish  priests  ?  Free  public 
schools !  What  a  burlesque  upon  the  name 
of  freedom,  where  the  Bible  is  carefully  shut 
out,  where  the  very  Lord's  Prayer  is  branded 
as  intolerance  and  sectarianism,  where  the 
books  and  the  principles  which  alone  can  lay 


OF  THE  EXCLUSION  OF  RELIGION.        109 

the  foundation  or  teach  the  nature  of  civil  and 
religious  freedom,  are  interdicted.  It  would  be 
a  suicidal  policy  for  our  freedom  and  our  pi 
ety,  if  such  a  course  should  be  adopted.  It 
would  be  the  most  lunatic  instance  the  world 
has  even  seen  of  the  madness  of  digging  down 
the  charcoal  foundations  of  the  temple,  under 
pretence  of  providing  a  universal  fuel  for  the 
fires  upon  its  altars. 

10 


f  ft*  Jfosiidnd  Jppf^tei  in  a  Cranum 


CASE    OF    THE    DEAF    AND    DUMB. 

A  COMMON  school  education  at  the  expense 
of  the  State  would  be  based  upon  a  wrong 
principle,  if  it  ignored  or  excluded  any  knowl 
edge  admitted  to  be  essentially  important  for 
all  intelligent  creatures,  everywhere,  under  all 
circumstances,  as  members  of  the  State.  A 
common  school  education  should  be  such,  that 
whatever  is  essential  to  the  well-being  and 
good  citizenship  of  the  pupil,  should  be  taught 
there,  in  its  principles  at  least,  should  be  ac 
cessible  there,  as  if  no  other  means  of  instruc 
tion  were  to  be  ever  in  his  power.  A  common 
school  education  ought  to  teach  so  much  of 
Christianity  and  the  Word  of  God,  that  a 
child  could  be  saved  by  it,  if  he  never  knew 
any  more  of  it,  nor  from  any  other  source. 


A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.          Ill 

A  common  school  education  ought  not  to  rely 
upon  the  hope  or  possibility  of  anything  es 
sential  to  the  well-being  and  good  citizenship 
of  the  pupil,  being  taught  anywhere  else,  and 
on  account  of  that  possibility  to  exclude  that 
vital  element. 

There  is,  in  point  of  fact,  a  multitude  of 
persons,  whose  children  are  never  taught  re 
ligion  at  home,  not  even  the  existence  and  at 
tributes  of  God,  the  laws  of  moral  probation 
for  mankind,  nor  even  the  being  of  a  Saviour. 
They  never  see  a  Bible,  never  hear  its  lessons, 
never  listen  to  a  verse  of  it.  From  such,  in 
legislating  the  Bible  out  of  schools,  from  a 
professed  regard  to  the  largest  religious  lib 
erty,  JOM  take  away  the  only  opportunity  of 
coming  to  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
Christianity  and  the  "Word  of  God,  in  the 
most  important  and  critical  of  all  periods  for 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  character.  It 
would  be  treason  in  the  State  towards  the  in 
telligent  and  immortal  creatures  thus  thrown 
upon  its  care,  to  withhold  from  them  what  is 
most  essential  to  their  welfare. 

The  amount  of  immigration  alone,  into  our 


112  THE  ESSENTIAL  REQUISITES 

country,  and  of  the  increase  in  this  way  of  a 
population-element  needing  to  be  taught,  is 
upwards  of  four  hundred  thousand  a  year. 
Of  what  infinite  importance  that  an  education 
which,  to  say  the  least,  does  not  ignore  and 
exclude  Christianity  and  the  Bible,  be  given 
to  these !  Of  what  importance  that  the  thou 
sands  of  children  not  likely  in  any  other  way 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  Bible  at  all, 
learn  something  of  it  in  the  common  school ; 
learn  at  least  that  there  is  such  a  volume  as 
the  Word  of  God,  and  know  something  of  the 
beauty  and  power  of  its  sacred  lessons.  It  is 
admitted  on  all  hands  that  we  are  in  great 
danger  from  the  dark  and  stolid  infidelity  and 
vicious  radicalism  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
foreign  immigrating  population.  What,  then, 
can  be  done  to  ward  off  this  danger,  and  how 
can  we  reach  the  evil  at  its  roots,  applying  a 
wise  and  conservative  radicalism  to  defeat  the 
working  of  that  malignant,  social,  anti-Chris 
tian  poison?  How  can  the  children  of  such 
a  population  be  reached,  except  in  our  free- 
public  schools  ?  If  the  Bible  be  read  in  them, 
its  daily  lessons  cannot  but  be  attended  by  the 


IN  A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.       113 

Divine  blessing,  and  in  many  instances  may 
beget  such  a  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God, 
and  instil  such  a  knowledge  of  its  teachings, 
that  the  infidelity  of  their  home  education 
shall  be  effectually  counteracted.  And  if  the 
religious  influence  that  prevails  in  our  best 
school-books  be  thrown  around  them,  that  in 
fluence,  constant  and  familiar,  though  in  no 
respect  sectarian,  will  be  as  a  guiding  and 
transfiguring  light  in  the  formation  of  their 
opinions  and  the  education  of  their  feelings. 

But  exclude  the  Bible  from  the  schools,  and 
accompany  that  exclusion,  as  to  be  logically 
consistent  you  must,  with  a  dephlogistication 
of  your  school-books,  to  expurgate  from  them 
the  whole  religious  element,  and  where  will 
the  children  of  this  class  of  our  population 
learn  anything  better  than  the  gloomy  and 
destructive  infidelity  of  their  parents  and  as 
sociates  ?  The  Bible  does  not  spring  up  as  a 
guardian  angel  in  the  beer-shops,  and  the  ex 
clusion  of  the  Bible  and  of  all  "  religious  bias" 
from  the  common  schools  is  really  giving  them 
over  into  the  power  of  the  Tempter,  without  a 
solitary  warning  in  their  education  that  can 


114  THE   ESSENTIAL  REQUISITES 

put  them  on  their  guard,  without  an  instruction 
by  which  they  can  distinguish  between  truth 
and  error,  without  an  influence  or  a  weapon 
of  protection  or  defence. 

The  State  provides  for  the  religious  instruc 
tion  of  the  deaf  and  dumb.  By  what  right  or 
authority  can  it  do  this,  and  not  be  guilty  of 
an  intolerant  oppression  of  the  consciences  of 
those  who  do  not  desire  such  instruction,  if 
there  be  not  the  same  right  and  authority  to 
institute  the  teaching  or  reading  of  the  Bible 
in  the  common  schools  ?  The  Institution  for 
the  Deaf  and  Dumb  is  under  the  same  general 
laws  as  the  common  schools,  and  the  people's 
money  is  appropriated  for  its  support ;  and  if 
a  religious  bias,  or  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  is 
a  wrong  to  conscience  in  the  public  schools, 
so  it  is  there.  But  who*would  dare  lift  up  a 
voice  against  that  institution  of  mercy,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  sectarian,  intolerant,  and  op 
pressive  to  the  conscience  ?  Yet  it  is  but  a  pub 
lic  school ;  and  in  regard  to  all  knowledge  of 
the  Word  of  God,  many  of  the  children  in  our 
streets,  who  have  ears  to  hear,  and  tongues  to 
ask  and  to  answer,  are  as  destitute  and  vacant, 


IN  A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.       115 

and  as  likely  to  continue  so,  if  that  knowledge 
be  not  communicated  in  the  common  schools, 
as  if  they  were  in  reality  both  deaf  and  dumb. 
Kay,  if  they  were  so,  and  the  Bible  were  ex 
cluded  from  the  common  schools,  while  it  is 
admitted  into  the  schools  for 'the  instruction 
of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  then  they  they  would 
be  far  more  likely  in  their  misfortune,  and  by 
the  very  means  of  it,  to  know  the  Word  of 
God,  and  be  saved,  than  if  they  possessed  the 
common  faculties  of  humanity. 

Take  now  the  simple  and  aifecting  descrip 
tion  of  the  scenes  at  the  last  anniversary  of 
this  institution,  and  say  if  there  was  anything 
in  the  reported  exercises  of  the  pupils  that 
could,  even  in  our  common  schools,  have 
justly  offended  any  man's  conscience.  The 
President  of  the  Institution  declared  that  there 
is  "  scarcely  a  State  in  the  Union  of  any  con 
siderable  population  and  resources,  that  has 
not  fully  or  in  part  acknowledged  the  claims 
of  this  interesting  and  unfortunate  portion  of 
its  population  to  the  means  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life."  Intellectual  and  Spiritual ;  this 
is  just.  But  if  the  deaf  and  dumb  children 


116  THE    ESSENTIAL   REQUISITES 

need  the  spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual,  so  do 
all  other  children  thrown  upon  the  State  for 
their  education;  nay,  more,  in  proportion  to 
the  more  active  part  they  will  be  called  to  take 
in  the  affairs  of  life  and  of  the  country.  And 
if  the  State  can,  without  violation  of  con 
science  and  of  right,  give  the  Bible  to  deaf 
and  dumb  children  in  their  schools,  and  ought 
so  to  do,  (which  who  will  deny  ?)  it  can  and 
ought,  by  the  same  rule,  to  all  the  children  in 
the  common  schools  ;  it  would  be  cruelty  and 
oppression  to  take  it  away  from  these,  and  fa 
voritism  to  bestow  it  upon  those.  The  visitors 
at  this  Institution  were  charmed  with  the 
proofs  of  success  in  developing  the  religious 
sentiment  and  conscience  of  the  pupils,  and 
delighted  at  the  clearness,  simplicity,  and 
promptness  of  the  replies  that  had  been  made 
to  questions  of  a  religious  import. 

"  Who  made  the  world  ?"  was  the  question 
once  proposed  to  a  little  boy  in  the  Institution. 
Without  an  instant's  delay  the  chalk  had  rap 
idly  traced  the  answer :  . 

"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  Heavens 
and  the  earth." 


IN  A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.       117 

"  "Why  did  Jesus  come  into  the  world  ?" 
was  the  next  question  proposed.  With  a  smile 
of  gratitude  the  little  fellow  wrote  in  reply : 

"  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of 
all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners."  The  astonished  visitor, 
desirous  of  testing  the  religious  nature  of  the 
pupil  to  the  utmost,  ventured  at  length  to  ask, 

"  Why  were  you  born  deaf  and  dumb,  when 
I  can  both  hear  and  speak?"  With  the 
sweetest  and  most  touching  expression  of 
meek  resignation  on  the  face  of  the  boy,  the 
rapid  chalk  replied : 

"  Even  so,  Father,  for  it  seemeth  good  in 
thy  sight." 

Now  suppose  that  such  a  scene,  at  a  public 
examination,  and  as  the  result  of  the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures,  had  taken  place  in  one  of 
our  common  schools  ;  who  dare  pretend  or  af 
firm  that  that  would  be  an  intrusion  upon  the 
rights  of  conscience,  an  oppression  by  the 
State,  of  those  who  reject  the  Scriptures,  or  an 
over-stepping  of  the  proper  sphere  of  .govern 
ment? 


from  %  |toto  0f 


THEKE  is  another  line  of  argument  to  prove 
unanswerably  that  the  State  not  only  may 
justly  interfere  to  appoint  religious  instruction 
to  be  given  in  the  common  schools,  but  must 
do  so,  to  be  consistent  with  other  statutes  and 
appointments  for  the  people.  For  example  : 
The  State  appoints  the  formality  of  an  oath  to 
be  taken  on  the  Bible,  for  the  swearing  of 
witnesses,  and  on  many  other  occasions;  it 
is  a  very  common  administration  by  the 
State.  Now,  if  this  be  anything  serious,  if  it 
be  not  the  gravest  yet  most  absolute  mockery, 
it  is  a  religious  reality  of  the  highest  and  most 
solemn  import  and  authority.  But  though  a 
religious  reality,  still  it  is  a  mockery,  if  the 
State,  having  appointed  this  form  of  oath  by 
law,  and  provided  for  its  sacredness,  do  not 


ARGUMENT  FROM  AN  OATH.      119 

provide  the  means  of  understanding  it ;  if  the 
State  exclude  from  the  very  elements  of  a 
common  school  education,  that  knowledge, 
that  instruction,  by  which  alone  it  is  possible 
to  understand  it.  The  children  of  the  State 
should  surely  be  taught  what  an  oath  is,  if, 
when  they  grow  up  to  be  citizens,  they  are 
liable  to  have  it  administered  on  occasions  of 
the  most  critical  nature  and  importance. 

But  simply  to  teach  the  nature  of  an  oath, 
the  State  must  have  the  power  to  teach  relig 
ious  truth,  and  must  provide  for  its  being 
taught  in  a  common  school  education.  For 
what  is  the  nature  of  an  oath  ?  An  appeal  to 
Almighty  God,  the  governor  and  judge  of 
mankind,  an  appeal  on  the  ground  of  the 
great  doctrines  of  revealed  religion  that  God 
searches  the  heart,  that  we  are  account 
able  to  him,  that  he  will  one  day  bring  us  into 
judgment  for  every  thought,  word,  and  action, 
and  that  he  will  punish  the  guilty  and  reward 
the  righteous.  How  can  the  nature  of  an 
oath  be  taught,  without  teaching  the  sinful- 
ness  of  a  lie  before  God,  and  the  certainty  of 
his  vengeance  ?  How,  without  teaching  that 


120  ARGUMENT   FROM 

for  every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak,  they 
shall  give  account  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  ? 
How  can  the  power  of  an  oath  be  felt,  without 
the  knowledge  of  its  sanctions,  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  and  holiness,  and  justice  of 
Jehovah,  the  knowledge  that  if  it  be  falsely 
taken,  all  liars  are  by  name  excluded  from  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  appointed  to  the 
endurance  of  God's  righteous  indignation  ? 

Now,  these  things  are  religious  teachings, 
most  important,  most  invaluable,  for  the  train 
ing  of  the  conscience  and  the  heart ;  and  if 
the  State  have  any  right  to  command  the  oath, 
the  State  has  the  same  right,  and  comes  under 
the  highest  obligation,  to  provide  for  and  ap 
point  such  teachings,  that  her  citizens  may 
know  their  commonest  forms  of  duty,  and  be 
prepared  for  their  sincere  and  intelligent  per 
formance.  And  what  did  Washington  say 
upon  this  very  point  ?  Let  us  recur  to  the 
sentence,  which  he  wrote  expressly  to  prove 
the  absolute  necessity  of  religion  as  well  as 
morality  for  the  existence  and  well-being  of 
the  State,  and  therefore  the  necessity  of  the 
teaching  of  religion  as  well  as  morality.  "  Let 


THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.      121 

it  be  simply  asked,"  said  he,  "where  is  the 
security  for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life, 
if  the  sense  of  religious  obligation  desert  the 
oaths,  which  are  the  instruments  of  investiga 
tion  in  courts  of  justice?"  But  that  sense 
must  desert  them,  if  men  are  not  taught  those 
religious  truths,  by  which  only  the  oath  can 
be  understood  in  its  sacredness,  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  which  alone  it  is  worth  any 
thing.  Now,  is  the  State  bound  to  provide 
means  for  the  preparation  of  the  children  for 
the  obligations  and  duties  of  a  citizen,  in  tak 
ing  upon  itself  the  work  of  their  education, 
or  is  it  not  ?  If  any  education  be  given  by 
the  State,  surely  it  must  be  such  that  by 
means  of  it  the  children  may  arrive  at  the 
knowledge  of  those  obligations  and  responsi 
bilities  which  will  rest  upon  them  as  members 
of  the  State.  And  what  an  anomaly,  what  a 
profound  and  palpable  inconsistency,  to  ap 
point  and  enjoin  a  religious  obligation  for  our 
civil  and  social  life,  and  at  the  same  time  en 
join  the  exclusion  from  our  common  schools 
of  all  the  peculiar  instruction  and  knowledge 
requisite  for  performing  it !  If  the  State  have 
11 


122  ARGUMENT  FROM 

any  authority  to  prohibit  sectarianism  in  the 
common  schools,  it  has  a  still  higher  author 
ity,  and  more  binding  obligation,  to  provide 
for  the  teaching  of  religious  truth.  The  truths 
on  which  an  oath  is  founded,  the  State  must 
teach. 

The  very  last  occasion  on  which  Daniel 
Webster  ever  appeared  in  Faneuil  Hall,  in 
Boston,  he  uttered  a  passage  on  the  nature  of 
the  work  of  a  popular  education,  which  de 
serves  to  be  inscribed  over  the  door  of  every 
common  school-house  in  America  : — 

"  We  seek  to  educate  the  people.  We  seek 
to  improve  men's  moral  and  religious  condi 
tion.  In  short,  we  seek  to  work  upon  mind 
as  well  as  upon  matter.  And  in  working  on 
mind,  it  enlarges  the  human  intellect  and 
the  human  heart.  We  know  that  when  we 
work  upon  materials,  immortal  and  imperish 
able,  that  they  will  bear  the  impress  which  we 
place  upon  them,  through  endless  ages  to 
come.  If  we  work  upon  marble,  it  will 
perish;  if  we  work  upon  brass,  time  will 
efface  it.  If  we  rear  temples,  they  will 
crumble  to  the  dust.  But  if  WE  WORK  ON 


THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.  123 

MEN'S  IMMORTAL  MINDS — IF  WE  IMBUE  THEM 
WITH  HIGH  PRINCIPLES,  WITH  THE  JUST  FEAR 
OF  GOD,  AND  OF  THEIR  FELLOW-MEN— WE 
ENGRAVE  ON  THOSE  TABLETS  SOMETHING 
WHICH  NO  TIME  CAN  EFFACE,  BUT  WHICH 
WILL  BRIGHTEN  AND  BRIGHTEN  TO  ALL  ETER- 


INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY 

OF   THE   EXCLUSION    OF  . 

to  a  C0mm0n  Sttal  Oration, 


IT  lias  been  the  conviction  of  some  of  the 
wisest  men  that  ever  lived,  that  an  education 
may  be  infidel,  and  therefore  immoral,  in  its 
tendency,  without  a  shade  of  positive  infidel 
teaching,  by  the  bare  fact  of  entirely  ignoring 
and  excluding  Christianity.  Certainly,  there 
are  no  direct  moral  lessons  in  mathematics  or 
any  of  the  sciences,  unless  the  light  of  religion 
is  brought  to  play  upon  them.  Morality  itself, 
according  to  the  sentiment  we  have  quoted 
from  Washington,  is  based  upon  religion,  and 
if  religion  be  excluded,  morality  is  also.  The 
most  perfect  knowledge  of  physical  law  will  not 
restrain  the  passions  ;  the  sanctions  of  religion 
are  essential  for  that.  But  really,  to  ignore 


INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY.        125 

and  exclude  religion  is  to  teacli  that  it  is  not 
necessary,  if  it  be  not  also  directly  to  teacli 
that  there  is  no  such  thing,  no  one  true  re 
ligion,  in  regard  to  which  there  is  any  cer 
tainty  that  it  is  the  truth,  any  more  than  all 
forms  of  religion  under  heaven  are  the  truth. 
Is  there  not,  must  there  not  be,  necessarily, 
inevitably,  an  infidel  influence  in  such  teach 
ing? 

There  is  power  and  truth  in  this  declaration. 
It  is  not  bigotry,  it  is  not  attachment  to  sec 
tarianism,  but  it  is  true  religious  knowledge 
and  feeling,  that  produces  this  sentiment,  this 
conviction,  on  the  part  of  those  churches  that 
entertain  it ;  and  they  are  not  few.  They  do 
believe  that  where  you  carefully  divorce  and 
exclude  all  religious  teaching  from  secular 
teaching,  and  permit  only  the  last,  the  incul 
cation  is  that  of  a  potential  infidelity  ;  and  if 
this  becomes  a  characteristic  of  our  school 
system,  and  the  grand  rule  for  cutting  and 
drying  it,  is  to  be  the  careful  expulsion  of  the 
religious  element,  under  politicians  for  com 
missioners  and  superintendents,  the  churches 

will  not  support  it,  and  will  refuse  to  be  taxed 
11* 


126        INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY. 

for  it.  They  will  never  consent  that  the  Gov 
ernment,  merely  because  it  allows  the  people 
to  tax  themselves  for  free  schools,  shall  set  up 
such  a  tyrannical  expurgation  of  the  Bible 
and  religion  from  the  system  of  the  education 
of  their  children. 

But  here  you  are  prompt  to  answer,  algebra 
is  not  infidel ;  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  are 
not  infidel ;  there  can  be  no  irreligion  in  one's 
A  B  C's.  No!  but  if  to  each  one  of  these 
branches,  and  to  the  learning  of  them,  is  at 
tached  the  prohibition,  you  shall  not  couple 
with  them  any  religious  teaching,  you  shall  not 
read  nor  teach  the  Scriptures  along  with  them ; 
this  ban  of  excommunication  leaves  a  posi 
tive  taint  upon  the  school.  The  jealousy  and 
exclusion  of  religion  and  of  the  Scriptures  at 
taches  unconsciously  to  all  the  branches  taught 
under  such  an  interdiction ;  an  instinctive  re 
pulsion  is  taught,  on  the  part  of  all  the  school 
exercises,  habits,  discipline,  against  religious 
light  and  liberty.  The  pressure  of  such  a 
negative  may  not  be  felt  or  acknowledged 
definitely,  at  present,  on  any  one  point;  but 
in  the  long  run,  and  as  a  whole,  it  must  be  of 


INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY.         127 

prodigious  and  pernicious  power.  It  acts  as  a 
standing,  perpetual  insinuation,  argument,  and 
warning,  against  the  Word  of  God.  Taken  in 
connection  with  a  multiplicity  of  other  influ 
ences  and  efforts  of  infidelity  to  weaken  the 
hold  of  the  Scriptures  on  the  public  mind,  the 
mass  of  the  community  will  be  poorly  prepared 
to  withstand  the  insidious  attack.  The  general 
voice  of  the  nation  will  seem  to  be  against  the 
Word  of  God,  and  it  will  be  presented  in  the 
attitude  of  an  object  of  the  fear  and  jealousy 
of  the  country.  This  is  an  effect  quite  inevita 
ble  from  any  such  guarded  exclusion  of  it 
from  a  system  of  free  public  education ;  any 
candid  mind  must  be  convinced  of  this  on  a 
moment's  reflection.  Suppose  that  in  Austria, 
for  example,  any  copy  of  the  American  Con 
stitution,  and  all  allusions  to  it,  and  to  the 
system  of  free  government  founded  upon  it, 
were  forbidden  in  all  the  schools,  so  that  any 
teacher  who  should  undertake  to  enlighten  a 
class  concerning  it,  or  to  teach  the  wisdom  of 
its  principles,  would  be  subject  to  an  ignomin 
ious  dismissal  from  his  office ;  could  it  be  other 
wise  than  that  such  guarded  exclusion  should 


128        INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY. 

impress  a  general  sense  of  something  danger 
ous  and  pernicious  in  that  constitution  and 
system  of  government?  "Would  it  not  be 
passing  strange  for  a  people  professing  a  con 
viction  of  the  supreme  excellence  of  that  sys 
tem,  to  enact  such  edicts  against  it?  Could 
the  effect  be  possibly  otherwise  than  injuri 
ous  towards  it?  There  are  cases  in  which  a 
studied  silence  and  omission  are  the  greatest 
reproach. 

It  is  hardly  needful  to  refer  to  authorities 
on  this  subject ;  it  would  be  superfluous,  were 
it  not  for  the  amazing  extent  to  which  an 
anti-Christian  sophistry  has  carried  captive  a 
portion  of  the  public  mind.  "  The  Christian 
principles,"  says  John  Foster,  "  cannot  be  true, 
without  determining  what  shall  be  true  in  the 
mode  of  representing  all  those  subjects  with 
which  they  hold  a  connection.  He  who  has 
sent  a  revelation  to  declare  the  theory  of  sacred 
truth,  and  to  order  the  relations  of  all  moral 
sentiments  with  that  truth,  cannot  give  his 
sanction  at  once  to  this  final  constitution,  and 
to  that  which  disowns  it.  God  therefore  dis 
owns  that,  which  disowns  the  religion  of 


INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY.        129 

Christ,  and  what  he  disowns  he  condemns, 
thus  placing  all  moral  sentiments  in  the  same 
predicament,  with  regard  to  the  Christian 
economy,  in  which  Jesus  Christ  placed  his 
contemporaries,  'He  that  is  not  with  me,  is 
against  me.'  " 

"An  entire  separation  of  moral  science" 
(and  consequently  of  education)  "  from  re 
ligion  it  is  hardly  possible  to  preserve,  since 
Christianity  has  decided  some  moral  questions 
on  which  reason  was  dubious  or  silent ;  and 
since  that  final  retribution  which  the  New 
Testament  has  so  luminously  foreshown,  is 
evidently  the  greatest  of  sanctions.  To  make 
no  reference,  while  inculcating  moral  princi 
ples,  to  a  judgment  to  come,  after  that  judg 
ment  has  been  declared  on  what  has  been  con 
fessed  to  be  divine  authority,  would  look  like 
systematic  irreligion." 

But  any  reference  to  such  truths,  or  inculca 
tion  of  such  lessons,  produces  a  religious  bias, 
and  is  the  inculcation  of  distinctively  religious 
truth,  though  not  sectarian.  And  if  God  dis 
owns  that  which  disowns  religion,  he  must 
disown  a  system  of  education  which  rejects  it 


130        INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY. 

from  the  things  to  be  taught,  defrauds  the 
mind  of  its  sanctions,  and  places  the  creature 
.in  a  state  of  constant  exile  from  the  climate 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  It  walls  off  the 
thoughts  from  all  contact  with  the  eternal  re 
alities  of  our  being,  and  naturalizes  the  mind 
to  an  existence  like  a  dungeon.  The  unfor 
tunate  objects  of  such  a  discipline  of  jealousy 
against  religious  truth,  remind  us  of  one  of  Fos 
ter's  illustrations ;  "  they  are  somewhat  like  the 
inhabitants  of  those  towns  within  the  vast  salt 
mines  of  Poland,  who,  beholding  every  object 
in  their  region  by  the  light  of  lamps  and  can 
dles  only,  have  in  their  conversation  no  ex 
pressions  describing  things  in  such  aspects  as 
never  appear  but  under  the  lights  of  heaven." 
Now,  connect  with  this  such  an  extract  as 
you  may  make  almost  at  random  from  the  an 
nual  reports  of  any  of  our  benevolent  socie 
ties,  designed  for  the  good  of  children,  and  of 
the  poor,  as,  for  example,  the  last  report  of 
the  Association  of  New  York,  stating  the 
condition  of  multitudes  of  children,  who  are 
taught  nothing  of  God,  nothing  of  Divine 
truth,  nothing  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 


INFIDEL  ASPECT  AND  TENDENCY.         131 

nothing  but  vagrancj^,  low  cunning,  and  vice  ; 
and  suppose  a  multitude  of  such  children 
gathered  into  a  school,  from  which  all  refer 
ence  to  religion,  all  religious  distinctive  in 
struction,  all  lessons  from.  Divine  truth  in  re 
gard  to  God,  and  the  relations  of  man  to  the 
future  world,  as  a  world  of  retribution  and 
reward ;  and  if  they  get  no  education  but  such 
as  the  State  gives  them  in  such  a  school,  in 
what  better  condition  would  they  be,  as  re 
spects  "the  lights  of  heaven,"  than  that  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  mines  of  Poland  ? 

Strange  delusion,  to  ihink  of  benefiting  the 
children  of  the  poor  and  vicious,  by  bringing 
them  into  schools  under  the  rule  of  a  studied 
exclusion  of  the  Bible,  and  all  religious  in 
struction  ;  a  system  of  education  properly  de 
scribed  as  wearing  the  stamp  of  systematic 
xrreligion !  Yet  such  is  precisely  the  course 
of  policy  to  which  this  community  are  urged, 
on  the  plea  of  accommodating  the  school  sys 
tem  to  the  conscience  of  a  sect,  the  mainten 
ance  of  wrhose  power  depends  on  keeping  the 
Bible  from  their  children,  and  their  children 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible ! 


Argument  from  t\t  Remits  0f 
Stlf-pbernment. 


I  HAVE  at  tliis  moment  lying  before  me  a 
discourse  by  a  popular  preacher,  reported  in 
one  of  our  public  papers,  in  which  it  it  pro 
claimed  that  in  our  country,  the  foundation  of 
power  in  the  individual  and  liberty  in  the 
masses  is  self-government,  founded  on  religious 
belief  and  conscience  ;  the  necessity  is  forcibly 
and  eloquently  presented,  of  "  religious  inspir 
ation  and  religious  self-control  in  the  indi 
vidual,"  and  it  is  declared  that  "  if  these  be 
lost  or  corrupted,  our  expiring  anguish  will 
surpass  that  of  any  nation  that  ever  lived." 
This  position  may  be  completely  maintained  ; 
it  is  almost  a  truism  concerning  the  nature  of 
republican  freedom,  that  it  is  impossible  with 
out  the  habit  of  self-government.  But  who 


RELIGIOUS  SELF-GOVERNMENT.  133 

ever  heard  of  religious  inspiration  and  religious 
self-control  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
Word  of  God?  And  where  shall  this  sense 
and  knowledge  of  religion  and  of  the  Scrip 
tures,  presented  as  of  such  vital  importance  to 
the  preservation  of  our  country's  liberties,  be 
taught  ?  Can  it  be  safely  left  to  the  churches, 
and  to  those  schools  where  sectarian  tenets  are 
taught  ?  The  answer  instantly  presents  itself 
that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  churches  and  those 
schools  are  patronized  or  frequented  by  those 
only,  or  mainly,  who  have  the  Bible  taught  in 
their  families,  and  that,  moreover,  there  are 
not  enough  of  such  churches  and  schools  to 
accommodate  a  fourth  —  no,  not  an  eighth-part 
of  the  community. 

The  argument  in  behalf  of  the  very  exist 
ence  of  free  public  schools,  is  an  argument  for 
the  necessity  of  the  Bible  in  them.  The 
churches  and  the  parochial  schools  are  glar 
ingly  inadequate;  perhaps  not  more  than  a 
sixth  part  of  the  families  in  our  country  ever 
attend  any  church,  or  any  other  schools  than  the 
free  schools.  Consequently,  five-sixths  of  our 
whole  youthful  population  are  left  unprovided, 


r\ 


134     ARGUMENT  FKOM  THE  NECESSITY  OF 

with  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  any  re 
ligious  instruction,  if  you  exclude  it  from  the 
free  public  schools.  Consequently,  if  it  be  so 
excluded,  the  very  idea  of  it  will  come  to  five- 
sixths  of  our'  children  only  as  a  thing  to  be 
guarded  against,  and  of  which  they  know  little 
else  but  this  only,  that  it  is  forbidden  in  the 
public  schools.  Nor  would  this  interdiction 
be  particularly  likely  to  make  them  inquire 
for  it  elsewhere. 

The  inconsistency  of  such  a  course  is  man 
ifest.  Our  whole  possibility  of  safety  and 
prosperity  as  a  country  is  founded  on  habits 
and  influences  of  religious  self-control,  and 
yet,  the  only  book  that  teaches  such  control 
without  sectarianism,  and  provides  the  ele 
ments  for  it,  forbidden  in  the  free  public 
schools,  and  shut  out  from  the  knowledge  of 
five-sixths  of  the  people's  children!  Lan 
guage  cannot  state  strongly  enough  the  gross- 
ness  of  this  inconsistency;  nor  the  greatness  of 
the  danger  from  such  a  course.  Then,  too, 
the  evil  which  needs  to  be  diminished,  of  such 
a  rivalry  between  private  schools  and  the  free 
school  system,  as  places  them  at  antagonism, 


RELIGIOUS  SELF-GOVERNMENT.  135 

and  presents  the  private  schools  as  the  more 
moral,  more  respectable,  more  select  and  safe, 
both  for  the  mind  and  heart,  the  manners  and 
morals  of  the  pupil, — that  evil  would  be 
greatly  increased ;  for  any  parent  of  sane  and 
unprejudiced  mind  would  prefer,  though  at 
far  greater  cost,  to  send  a  child  to  school 
where  the  Word  of  God  is  free,  and  religious 
instruction  at  least  is  possible. 

If  you  undertake  to  educate  all  the  children 
of  the  State,  to  bring  them  all  together  in 
harmony,  in  one  and  tho  same  grand  system, 
that  all  may  have  the  advantages  of  each,  and 
each  of  all,  that  every  division  may  be  avoided 
which  has  the  effect  of  placing  one  portion  of 
the  children  in  a  higher  and  better  system, 
and  another  less  favored  portion  in  a  poorer 
and  more  limited  system ;  if  you  would  thus 
dispense  with  the  necessity  of  particular  and 
private  schools,  for  those  who  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  governmental  schools,  because  they 
do  but  half  educate  the  child,  in  educating  the 
mind  only ;  then  must  you  combine,  in  your 
common  school  system,  all  the  requisites  for  a 
thorough  education  of  the  whole  being.  You 


136     ARGUMENT  FROM  THE  NECESSITY  OP 

cannot  leave  out  the  moral  and  religious  ele 
ment,  and  satisfy  the  people ;  they  will  not 
long,  nor  unitedly,  sustain  a  system  with  so 
glaring  and  radical  a  deficiency.  If  you 
would  provide  an  education  for  all,  and 
equally,  then  must  you  level  up,  not  down. 

If  you  demand  that  the  private  and  pa 
rochial  schools  shall  throw  away  their  Bible, 
and  its  precious  religious  truth,  its  sacred  les 
sons,  merely  to  give  a  grander  support  to  your 
schools  without  the  Bible,  your  schools  divorced 
from  religion,  and  excluding  it,  you  will  de 
mand  in  vain ;  you  can  find  no  such  patriotism 
as  that  in  the  Church  of  Christ  in  America. 
If  you  divorce  your  schools  from  the  Bible 
and  religion,  you  will  divorce  them  from  the 
affections,  the  respect,  the  support,  and  the 
patronage  of  Christians ;  and  so  divorced,  the 
common  school  system  cannot  stand.  They 
who  love  the  Bible  will  not  consent  to  have 

• 

the  education  of  their  children  levelled  down, 
to  meet  the  merely  secular  ancl  contracted 
standard  of  those  who  exclude  it.  They  who 
"believe  and  declare  that  the  freedom  of  relig 
ious  truth  alone  can  render  an  education  truly 


RELIGIOUS  SELF-GOVERNMENT.  137 

free  and  comprehensive,  will  never  consent  to 
put  their  children  under  a  system  of  jealousy, 
restraint,  and  fear,  in  the  presence  of  Divine 
truth,  and  in  the  guarded  exclusion  of  it. 

It  is  singular  to  see,  in  the  same  breath,  an 
utterance  of  the  conviction,  or  professed  con 
viction,  that  it  is  to  the  supremacy  of  religious 
principle  and  religious  truth  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  our  fathers  that  we  owe  the  birth 
and  establishment  of  our  admirable  institu 
tions  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  ;  that  it  was 
their  sense  of  dependence  upon  God,  and  their 
earnest  seeking  of  Divine  guidance,  and  their 
deep  impression  of  the  same  principles  on 
their  children,  that  rendered  those  institutions, 
or  could  alone  render  them,  permanent ; — and 
then  an  utterance  of  contempt  or  of  serious 
argument  against  the  Bible  and  religious  in 
struction  in  our  schools,  just  as  if  there  were 
no  more  connection  between  our  future  pros 
perity  and  the  truth  by  which  our  fathers 
prospered,  than  between  the  harvest  which 
was  reaped  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  that 
which  we  confidently  believe  will  cover  the 
hill-sides  of  New  England  next  year.  Have 
12* 


138  EELIGIOUS  SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

we  arrived  at  such  a  religious  state,  are  we  so 
permeated  already  with  the  knowledge  and 
the  influence  of  religion,  that  the  process  of 
instruction  in  divine  truth  may  safely  stop, 
the  Bible  be  turned  out  of  school,  and  religion 
exorcised  from  the  common  school  education, 
as  a  superfluous  or  intruding  visitor  with 
whom  we  have  no  longer  any  necessary  con 
cern? 

It  is  admitted  that  we  owe  our  present  high 
prosperity,  our  good  order,  our  civil  and  re 
ligious  freedom,  to  the  knowledge  and  influ 
ence  of  the  Bible  among  all  classes.  And 
can  we  now  afford  to  throw  down  the  ladder, 
.by  which  we  have  ascended  to  these  blessings, 
and  leave  others  to  gain  them  as  they  may  ? 
Can  we  safely  rely  upon  an  uninstructed  gener 
ation  to  keep  them,  or  even  to  appreciate 
their  value  ?  Or  is  there  really  such  an  inde 
fatigable  and  all-conquering  zeal  for  teaching 
religion  to  the  children  of  the  masses  out  of 
school,  as  will  supply  the  want  of  it  in  the 
common  school  education  ? 


s  fnrni 

ARGUMENT   BY   DR.    CANDLISH. OPINION  OF  BUNSEN. 

MR.  GLADSTONE  of  England  recently  de 
clared,  in  speaking  of  the  happy  union  of  re 
ligious  and  secular  instruction  in  the  schools 
in  Scotland,  that  there  is  the  closest  and  the 
happiest  harmony  between  the  scientific  train 
ing  of  the  intellect  and  the  religious  training 
of  the  heart ;  that  he  commits  a  profanation 
against  God  and  against  human  nature  who 
would  attempt  to  dissever  them  ;  and-  that 
where  the  truths  of  the  Christian  faith  are 
fully  taught  and  rightly  received,  there  you 
will  best  and  most  fruitfully  pursue  the  work 
of  that  temporal  and  secular  training,  which  is 
the  specific  object  of  the  school.  In  the  ac 
knowledgment  and  light  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  not  in  the  exclusion  of  it,  that  specific  ob- 


140        ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND. 

ject  is  to  be  pursued  ;  for  surely  one  specific 
result,  if  not  design,  of  a  school  from  which, 
the  Christian  religion  is  by  law  excluded,  will 
be  the  product  of  infidelity. 

Dr.  Candlish,  in  speaking  recently  in  Edin 
burgh,  on  the  importance  of  retaining  the'  re-, 
ligious  element  in  the 'common  schools,  estab 
lished  the  point  that  that  element  may  be 
introduced  without  sectarianism,  and  without 
offence  to  any  conscience.  The  children  were 
permitted  to  avail  themselves  of  the  religious 
instruction  in  the  schools  or  not  according  to 
the  pleasure  of  their  parents ;  but  it  was  found 
that  the  Koman  Catholics  themselves  chose 
the  whole  course.  "  Dr.  Candlish  then  showed 
the  non-sectarian  character  of  the  education 
given  in  the  schools,  as  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  it  appeared  from  the  returns  of  568  of  the 
schools,  that  there  were  in  these  schools  31,999 
scholars  whose  parents  belonged  to  the  Free 
Church,  10,054  belonging  to  the  Established 
Church,  614  Eoman  Catholics,  and  9,223  be 
longing  to  other  denominations.  It  is  a  prin 
ciple  of  our  scheme,  said  Dr.  Candlish,  as  I 
believe  it  is  generally  in  schools  in  Scotland, 


ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND.         141 

that  parents  may  withdraw  their  children  from 
religious  instruction  altogether.  They  may 
avail  themselves  of  any  one  branch  of  educa 
tion,  and  decline  to  avail  themselves  of  any 
other  branch.  That  liberty  is  conceded  in 
most  schools  in  Scotland.  I  think  it  a  proper 
principle,  and  one  which  greatly  facilitates  the 
right  settlement  of  the  question.  Of  the  618 
Koman  Catholics  attending  our  schools,  I  have 
not  learned  an  instance — and  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  one — of  an  application  for  the  exemp 
tion  of  their  children  from  religious  instruc 
tion.  I  believe  they  generally  conform  to  the 
whole  course  of  education,  unless  some  priest 
comes  over  from  the  land  of  intolerance  with 
fresh  zeal.  But  be  that  as  it  may.  The 
second  statement  I  have  to  make  on  this  point 
is  this  : — We  selected  75  schools  in  the  large 
towns  of  Scotland,  and  found  that  there  were 
in  them  4,658  children  of  parents  belonging 
to  the  Free  Church,  1,904  belonging  to  the 
Established  Church,  212  Eomau  Catholics,  and 
3,357  of  other  denominations — in  all,  4,658 
of  Free  Church  children,  and  5,487,  or  a  con 
siderable  majority,  belonging  to  other  denomi- 


142        ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND. 

nations ;  so  that  our  scheme  manifestly  bears 
on  the  face  of  it  the  character  of  thorough 
Catholicism,  thorough  unsectarianism." 

This  is  a  most  important  and  impressive 
testimony  ;  and  not  less  important,  and  appli 
cable  to  our  own  case,  is  the  principle  justly 
laid  down  by  Dr.  Candlish,  that  as  to  the 
matter  of  religious  instruction,  the  Scottish 
educational  traditions  and  hereditary  prin 
ciples  of  education  ought  to  be  regarded ;  "it 
was  the  right  of  the  Scottish  people,  for  there 
were  such  hereditary  educational  principles  in 
Scotland,  as  made  it  easy  to  bring  in  a  sys 
tem  of  education  that  would  harmonize  all, 
and  place  education  on  a  religious,  and  yet 
non-sectarian  basis.  There  ought  to  be,  in 
Scotland,  a  national  system,  and  that  system 
ought  to  be,  according  to  the  hereditary  tradi 
tions  of  Scotland,  the  use  and  wont  of  Scot 
land,  in  educational  matters,  since  Scotland 
was  a  reformed  country." 

Now,  in  regard  to  ourselves,  this  right  is 
still  clearer  and  more  positive.  The  heredi 
tary  educational  principle  with  us  always  has 
been  the  Bible  at  the  foundation,  and  religious 


ILLUSTRATIONS   FROM   SCOTLAND.        143 

instruction/rom  the  Bible.  It  is  no  new  thing. 
The  innovation  would  be  the  exclusion  of  the 
Bible,  a  tyrannical  defiance  and  destruction 
of  all  our  usages  from  the  outset,  at  the  de 
mand  of  a  single  sect.  The  Bible  in  the 
schools  has  been  the  custom  and  common  law 
of  the  schools  from  their  origin.  The  Bible 
ousted  from  the  schools  is  a  new  and  oppress 
ive  law  sought  to  be  forced  upon  us  by  a 
particular  political  and  ecclesiastical  party. 
We  have  the  right  of  our  forefathers,  and  of 
habit  and  law  from  the  beginning  downwards, 
as  well  as  the  right  of  God  and  duty,  for  the 
Bible  in  the  schools ;  and  none  shall  take  it 
from  us.  Dr.  Candlish  would  have  the  ques 
tion  so  settled  in  Scotland  (and  it  is  the  right 
view)  as  that  it  shall  not  be  in  the  power  of 
local  boards  so  much  as  to  raise  the  question 
whether  there  shall  be  religious  teaching; 
there  always  has  been,  and  it  ought  not  to  be 
in  the  power  of  any  to  say  that  there  shall  not 
be.  "Let  there  be  exceptional  cases,  if  you 
choose,  but  surely,  the  national  mind  of  Scot 
land  being  clear,  all  but  unanimous,  it  will  be 
a  grievous  hardship,  a  gross  outrage,  if  we  be 


144        ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND. 

hindered  from  getting  a  settlement  of  the  na 
tional  question  on  that  footing,  or  be  forced 
into  a  settlement  of  the  question  on  a  footing 
that  shall  leave  out  the  whole  matter  of  re 
ligion,  by  some  scruples  in  certain  quarters 
about  the  recognition  in  an  Act  of  Parliament 
that  there  should  be  religious  teaching,  and 
that  it  should  be  conducted  in  the  manner 
hitherto  in  use." 

Dr.  Candlish  then  declares  his  fear  that  we 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  very  serious  struggle  as 
regards  education ;  and  he  goes  on  to  bear 
testimony  against  the  views  of  those  who 
would  exclude  the  Bible  and  all  religious  bias, 
and  would  base  the  system  of  education  solely 
on  the  broad  principles  of  "secularism."  He 
refers  to  some  productions  by  those  gentlemen, 
and  then  says,  that  it  "  seems  to  be  the  faith 
of  those  parties  that  the  mere  knowledge  of 
the  physical  laws  of  nature  will  secure  the 
moral  and  social  well-being  of  this  great  com 
munity.  That  radical  error  runs  through  all 
the  productions  to  which  I  have  referred. 
There  seems  to  be  a  fixed  belief  in  the  minds 
of  those  men,  that  simply  to  know  the  physical 


ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND.         145 

laws  of  nature,  the  laws  that  regulate  demand 
and  supply,  is  sufficient, — in  short,  that  physics 
and  political  economy  are  enough  to  secure 
the  social  and  moral  well-being  of  the  com 
munity.  In  the  face  of  such  announcements 
as  these,  I  do  humbly  think  that  even  some 
of  our  friends  who  have  difficulties  about  the 
action  of  the  State  in  religious  matters,  might 
pause  a  little  in  this  question  of  national  edu 
cation,  and  consider  whether,  in  these  circum 
stances,  and  in  the  view  of  these  influences,  it 
might  not  be  well  to  have  all  the  security 
which  a  most  thorough  recognition  of  the  re 
ligious  element  can  give,  that  the  rising  gen 
eration  shall  not  be  left  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  those  who  would  teach  them  physics  and 
political  econony,  and  say  that  it  is  enough  to 
make  them  good  citizens  and  good  men." 

The  evil  and  the  danger  here  referred  to 
are  precisely  the  same  with  those  against 
which  we  were  warned  by  the  foresight  of 
Washington,  when  he  said  that  we  could  not 
hope  for  the  permanence  and  success  of  our 
institutions,  in  the  exclusion  of  religious  prin 
ciple  from  our  systems  of  education.  It  was 
13 


146        ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND. 

the  voice  of  a  wise,  discerning,  and  sincere 
patriotism,  and  no  sectarian  prejudice ;  for 
who  will  dare  accuse  "Washington  of  sectarian 
ism  or  intolerance,  in  his  farewell  address  to 
his  countrymen? 

In  this  connection  the  words  of  the  Cheva 
lier  Bunsen  are  worthy  to  be  quoted.  The 
nations  of  the  present  age,  says  Bunsen, 
"  want  not  less  religion,  but  more  :"  they  want 
it  "to  reform  the  social  relations  of  life,  begin- 
ing  with  the  domestic,  and  culminating  in  the 
political ;  an  honest  bona  fide  foundation,  deep 
as  the  human  mind,  and  a  structure  free  and 
organic  as  nature.  This  aim  cannot  be  at 
tained  without  national  efforts,  CHRISTIAN  EDU 
CATION,  free  institutions,  and  social  reforms. 
Then  no  zeal  will  be  called  Christian  which  is 
not  hallowed  by  charity,  no  faith  Christian 
which  is  not  sanctioned  by  reason.  Christi 
anity  enlightens  now  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  globe,  but  it  cannot  be  stationary,  it  will 
advance,  and  is  already  advancing,  trium 
phantly  over  the  whole  earth,  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  and  in  the  light  of  the  spirit."* 

*  Hyppolitus  and  his  age,  vol.  2,  p.  116. 


ILLUSTRATIONS  FKOM  SCOTLAND.         147 

Mr.  Gladstone  said,  speaking  of  Scotsmen, 
and  the  natural  poverty  of  their  country,  and 
the  effect  of  education  in  placing  Scotland  in 
a  position  among  nations  second  to  no  other ; 
three  or  four  hundred  years  ago,  they  were  a 
nation  in  the  rear  of  Europe ;  they  are  now  in 
front,  in  the  van.  The  reason  for  this  pro 
digious  and  astonishing  change  was  to  be  found 
in  the  fact,  that  for  two  centuries  the  people  of 
Scotland  had  had  the  advantage  of  schools 
far  beyond  any  other  country,  far  beyond 
England ;  and  every  laboring  man  in  Scotland 
had  had  the  means  of  sending  his  children  to 
them. 

But  they  were  not  schools  destitute  of  re 
ligious  bias ;  if  they  had  been  without  the 
Scriptures,  in  vain  would  they  have  been  in 
stituted.  They,  no  more  than  the  schools  of 
New  England,  founded  by  our  Puritan  Ances 
tors,  were  left  without  the  Bible  ;  and  it  is  to 
the  Bible  in  schools,  high  and  low,  common 
and  select,  that  Scotland,  as  well  as  New 
England,  owes  her  high  position.  Her  inde 
pendent  rugged  peasantry,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  her  mountain  homes,  would  never  other- 


148         ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  SCOTLAND. 

wise  have  maintained  their  unconquered  and 
unconquerable  religious  patriotism,  their  spirit 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

In  this  connection  the  interesting  fact  may 
be  named,  relative  to  the  advancing  character 
and  position  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  wholly 
based  from  the  outset  on  the  Word  of  God, 
that  at  an  early  period  the  teachers  of  the  com 
mon  schools  finding  a  deficiency  of  school- 
books,  and  that  the  New  Testament  was  the 
cheapest  as  well  as  the  best  class-book  they 
could  employ,  adopted  that  universally ;  and 
to  the  powerful  redeeming  and  enlightening 
influence  thus  daily  exerted,  the  rapidly  im 
proving  character  and  increasing  attainments 
of  the  children  were  to  be  attributed. 

Miss  Edgworth  tells  us  that  formerly  there 
existed  a  law  in  Scotland,  which  obliged  every 
farrier  who,  through  ignorance  or  drunkenness 
pricked  a  horse's  foot  in  shoeing  him,  to  de 
posit  the  price  of  the  horse  until  he  was  sound, 
to  furnish  the  owner  with  another,  and  in  case 
the  horse  could  not  be  cured,  the  farrier  was 
doomed -to  indemnify  the  injured  owner.  At 
the  same  rate  of  punishment,  asks  Miss  Edg- 


ILLUSTRATIONS  FEOM  SCOTLAND.        149 

worth,  what  indemnification  should  be  de 
manded  from  a  careless  or  ignorant  preceptor  ?* 
We  may  add,  suppose  that  he  had  neglected 
to  fasten  the  nails  so  that  the  first  hard  piece 
of  road  the  horse  had  to  travel,  his  shoes 
would  be  knocked  off,  and  his  feet  made  in 
curably  lame  for  want  of  protection.  The 
security  of  good  principles  is  what  we  want  in 
education,  and  it  can  be  found  only  in  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  ;  and  that  system  which 
neglects  or  wilfully  refuses  to  provide  those 
fastenings,  the  nails  of  divine  truth,  is  justly 
chargable  with  all  the  consequences. 

*  Practical  Education,  vol.  1.  p.  202. 
13* 


0f  %  Stt&jett  bg  10Im 


IN  arguing  with  characteristic  energy  and 
power  for  a  scheme  of  popular  education,  John 
Foster  argues  with  equal  power  that  religious 
instruction  should  form  a  material  part  of  it. 
He  exposes  the  miserable  absurdity  of  the  plan 
of  divorcing  education  from  religion,  and 
teaching  the  latter  as  a  separate  thing.  He 
shows  the  importance,  the  duty,  of  combining 
religious  with  other  information,  and  thus  ren 
dering  it  familiar  and  natural,  a  companion  of 
every-day  life,  and  not  a  formalistic  god,  or 
influence  of  Sundays  only,  or  of  Sunday 
schools.  Eeligion  must  not  be  forced  upon 
the  mind,  or  presented  by  itself  as  a  mere 
catechetical  speculation  or  abstraction,  but 
must  be  a  daily  companion  of  other  more  at 
tractive  knowledge,  because  it  requires  so 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.          151 

much  care  and  address  to  present  it  in  an  at 
tractive  light ;  and  it  is  desirable  to  combine 
it  with  other  subjects  naturally  more  engaging, 
and  with  associations  that  are  most  familiar 
and  pleasing  to  the  thoughts. 

The  question  being  how  to  bring  the  people 
by  the  ordinary  means  of  education  to  a  com 
petent  knowledge  of  religious  truth,  we  have 
to  consider  the  fittest  way.  "  And  if,"  says 
Foster,  "  in  attentively  studying  this,  there  be 
any  who  come  to  ascertain  that  the  right  ex 
pedient  is  a  bare  illustration  of  religious  in 
struction,  disconnected,  one  system,  from  the 
illustrative  aid  of  other  knowledge,  divested 
of  the  modification  and  attraction  of  associated 
ideas  derived  from  subjects  less  uncongenial 
with  the  natural  feelings,  they  really  may  take 
the  satisfaction  of  having  ascertained  one  thing 
more,  namely,  that  human  nature  has  become 
at  last  so  mightily  changed,  that  it  may  be  left 
to  work  itself  right  very  soon,  as  to  the  affair 
of  religion,  with  little  further  trouble  of 
theirs." 

While,  therefore,  this  great  writer  insists 
upon  the  mental  cultivation  of  the  masses  by 


152    PRESENTATION  OF  THE  SUBJECT 

all  means,  at  all  hazards,  accounting  all  knowl 
edge  as  being  absolutely  valuable,  an  appre 
hension  of  things  as  they  are,  and  tending  to 
prevent  delusion,  and  to  remove  the  obstacles, 
some  of  them  at  least,  in  the  way  of  right 
volitions ;  yet  he  maintains  that  never,  in  any 
case,  should  knowledge  be  separated  from 
religious  truth. 

""We  are  not  heard,"  says  he,  "insisting  on 
the  advantages  of  increased  knowledge  and 
mental  invigoration  among  the  people,  uncon 
nected  with  the  inculcation  of  religion.  The 
zealous  friends  of  popular  education  consider 
religion  (besides  being  itself  the  primary  and 
infinitely  the  most  important  part  of  knowl 
edge)  as  a  principle  indispensable  for  securing 
the  full  benefit  of  all  tlte  rest.  It  is  desired  and 
endeavored,  that  the  understanding  of  these 
opening  minds  may  be  taken  possession  of  by 
just  and  solemn  ideas  of  their  relation  to  the 
Eternal,  Almighty  Being;  that  they  may  be 
taught  to  apprehend  it  as  an  awful  reality,  that 
they  are  perpetually  under  His  inspection ; 
and,  as  a  certainty,  that  they  must  at  length 
appear  before  Him  in  judgment,  and  join,  in 


BY  JOHN  FOSTEE.  153 

another  life,  the  consequences  of  what  they 
are  in  spirit  and  conduct  here.  It  is  to  be  im 
pressed  on  them  that  his  will  is  the  supreme 
law;  that  his  declarations  are  the  most  mo 
mentous  truth  known  on  earth ;  and  his  favor 
and  condemnation  the  greatest  good  and  evil. 
And  it  is  wished  and  endeavored  to  be  by  the 
light  of  this  divine  wisdom,  that  they  are  dis 
ciplined  in  other  parts  of  knowledge ;  so  that 
nothing  they  learn  may  be  detached  from  all 
sensible  relation  to  it,  or  have  a  tendency  con 
trary  to  it.  Thus  it  is  sought  to  be  secured, 
that  as  the  pupil's  mind  grows  stronger,  and 
multiplies  its  resources,  and  he  therefore  has 
necessarily  more  power  and  means  for  what  is 
wrong,  there  may  be  luminously  presented 
to  him,  as  if  celestial  eyes  visibly  beamed 
upon  him,  the  most  solemn  ideas  that  can  en 
force  what  is  right." 

Now,  let  us  take  the  brief  description  of 
such  an  education  presented  by  Foster,  as  an 
approximation  towards  the  only  true  ideal  of 
&just  education,  an  education  which  the  State 
that  undertakes  to  educate,  is  pledged  to  pro 
vide  for  its  children,  and  let  us  ask  if  there  be 


154         PRESENTATION  OF  THE  SUBJECT 

anything  in  it  that  can  rightly  be  charged 
as  sectarian,  or  excluded  on  that  ground? 
Bather,  is  not  an  education  of  the  conscience, 
in  all  knowledge,  under  the  fear  of  God,  and 
with  a  constant  reference  to  Him,  the  most 
certain  way  to  prevent  sectarianism,  and  to 
bring  together  all  the  members  of  such  a 
school,  under  such  a  discipline,  as  children  of 
one  common  Parent,  united  in  Him  ? 

"  Such  is  the  discipline  meditated,"  contin 
ues  Foster,  "  for  preparing  the  children  to 
pursue  their  individual  welfare,  and  act  their 
part  as  members  of  the  community.  They 
are  to  be  trained  in  early  life  to  diligent  em 
ployment  of  their  faculties,  tending  to  strength 
en  them,  regulate  them,  and  give  their  possess 
ors  the  power  of  effectually  using  them.  They 
are  to  be  exercised  to  form  clear,  correct  no 
tions,  instead  of  crude,  vague,  delusive  ones. 
During  this  progress,  and  in  connection  with 
many  of  its  exercises,  their  duty  is  to  be  in 
culcated  on  them  in  the  various  forms  in 
which  they  will  have  to  make  a  choice  be 
tween  right  and  wrong  in  their  conduct 
towards  society.  There  will  be  reiteration 


BY  JOHN  FOSTER.  155 

of  lessons  on  justice,  prudence,  inoffensive- 
ness,  love  of  peace,  estrangement  from  the 
counsels  and  leagues  of  vain  and  bad  men ; 
hatred  of  disorder  and  violence,  a  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  authoritative  public  institutions 
to  prevent  these  evils,  and  respect  for  them, 
while  honestly  administered  to  this  end.  All 
this  is  to  be  taught,  in  many  instances  direct 
ly,  in  others  by  reference  to  confirmation, 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  from  which  author 
ity,  will  also  be  impressed,  all  the  while,  the 
principles  of  religion.  And  religion,  while 
its  grand  concern  is  with  the  state  of  the  soul 
towards  God  and  eternal  interests,  yet  takes 
every  principle  and  rule  of  morals  under  its 
peremptory  sanction ;  making  the  primary  ob 
ligation  and  responsibility  be  towards  God,  of 
everything  that  is  a  duty  with  respect  to  men. 
So  that,  with  the  subjects  of  this  education, 
the  sense  of  propriety  shall  be  conscience  ;  the 
consideration  of  how  they  ought  to  be  regulat 
ed  in  their  conduct,  as  a  part  of  the  commu 
nity,  shall  be  the  recollection  that  their  Master 
in  heaven  dictates  the  laws  of  that  conduct, 


156         PRESENTATION  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

and  will  judicially  hold  them   amenable  for 
every  part  of  it." 

"And  is  not  a  discipline  thus  addressed  to 
the  purpose  of  fixing  religious  principles  in 
ascendency,  as  far  as  that  difficult  object  is 
within  the  power  of  discipline,  and  of  infus 
ing  a  salutary  tincture  of  them  into  whatever 
else  is  taught,  the  right  way  to  bring  up  citi 
zens  faithful  to  all  that  deserves  fidelity  in  the 
social  compact  ?"* 

*  Foster  on  Popular  Ignorance,  c.  3. 


fr0m 


THE  simplest  elements  of  Moral  Science 
cannot  be  taught  without  a  religious  bias.  It 
is  impossible  to  ignore  or  exclude  Christianity, 
or  place  it  on  the  same  level  with  false  relig 
ions,  treating  all  alike,  and  at  the  same  time 
instruct  the  pupil  in  the  truths  of  moral  phi 
losophy,  If  you  would  make  the  subject  of 
morals  a  subject  of  study  at  all  in  the  common 
schools,  you  are  absolutely  compelled  to  make 
choice  of  some  system  ;  and  unless  you  take 
the  remnants  of  Pagan  philosophy  for  a  text 
book,  you  must  go  upon  the  ground  of  Chris 
tianity  ;  and  you  cannot  advance  a  step  with 
out  breaking  that  law  of  impartiality,  by 
which  it  is  asserted,  that  the  State  can  have 
nothing  to  do  with  religious  instruction,  but 
is  bound  to  reject  the  Bible,  and  all  distinctive- 
14 


158  ARGUMENT  FROM 

ly  religious  truth.  Morality  itself,  cannot  pos 
sibly  be  taught  without  distinctively  religious 
truth,  so  that  this  alleged  rule  of  impartiality 
would  exclude  morality  as  well  as  religion 
from  the  common  schools. 

As  an  illustration  of  this,  we  will  merely 
take,  from  the  Course  of  Instruction  in  the 
Central  High  School,  in  Philadelphia,  one  sin 
gle  section  among  many,  of  questions  at  a 
semi-annual  examination,  the  matter  of  the 
section  being  moral  science.  The  pupil  is  re 
quired  to  state  what  is  Conscience,  and  to 
prove  its  supremacy  with  the  effect  of  habit 
on  moral  actions,  and  the  respects  in  which 
the  moral  constitution  of  man  is  observed  to 
be  imperfect,  and  how  those  defects  are  to  be 
remedied. 

DIVISION  A;  Prof.  Kirkpatrick. — 1.  What 
is  meant  by  ethics,  and  how  is  the  science  di 
vided  ? — 2.  What  is  meant  by  the  terms  rela 
tions  and  obligations,  as  used  in  your  text 
book? — 3.  What  are  the  principal  relations 
existing  between  God  and  man  ? — 4.  Explain 
the  rights  and  obligations  arising  from  those 
relations. — 5  Prove  the  existence  of  a  con- 


THE  NATUKE  OF  MOEAL  SCIENCE.         159 

science. — 6.  What  is  meant  by  natural  relig 
ion  ? — 7.  Explain  the  relations  existing  be 
tween  natural  and  revealed  religion.' — 8.  How 
may  we  learn  our  duty  from  the  doctrine  of 
general  consequences  ? — 9.  How  may  we  learn 
our  duty  from  natural  religion,  or  the  light  of 
nature? — 10.  How  may  we  learn  our  duty 
from  the  Scriptures  ? 

Now,  unless,  for  the  sake  of  excluding  all 
religious  bias,  we  teach  &  false  system  of  mor 
als  in  the  public  schools,  the  merest  outline  of 
any  true  system  will  show  that  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  to  teach  morality,  without  at  the 
same  time  teaching  a  distinctive  religion  ;  and 
this  is  impossible,  without  a  direct  religious 
bias. 

It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  dwell  in  de 
tail  on  this  argument.  And  yet,  a  plausible 
sophistry  has  been  so  widely  spread,  and  the 
right  of  Government  to  administer  a  system 
of  education  at  all,  either  moral  or  religious, 
is  so  stoutly  denied  in  some  quarters,  that  it 
becomes  necessary.  The  objection  from  the 
danger  of  sectarianism  is  thus  presented  and 
disposed  of  by  Dr  Humphrey,  the  former 


160  AEGUMENT  FROM 

President  of  Amherst  College,  in  a  lecture 
before  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction  : 
"  There  is,  I  am  aware,  in  the  minds  of 
some  warm  and  respectable  friends  of  popular 
education,  an  objection  against  incorporating 
religious  instruction  into  the  system,  as  one 
of  its  essential  elements.  It  cannot,  they 
think,  be  done  without  bringing  in  along  with 
it  the  evils  of  sectarianism.  If  this  objection 
could  not  be  obviated,  it  would,  I  confess,  have 
great  weight  in  my  own  mind.  It  supposes 
that  if  any  religious  instruction  is  given,  the 
distinctive  tenets  of  some  particular  denom 
ination  must  be  inculcated.  But  is  this  at  all 
necessary  ?  Must  we  either  exclude  religion 
altogether  from  our  common  schools,  or  teach 
some  one  of  the  various  creeds  which  are  em 
braced  by  as  many  different  sects  in  the  eccle 
siastical  calendar?  Surely  not.  There  are 
certain  great  moral  and  religious  principles,  in 
which  all  denominations  are  agreed,  such  as 
the  ten  commandments,  our  Saviour's  golden 
rule,  everything,  in  short,  which  lies  within 
the  whole  range  of  duty  to  God  and  duty  to 
our  fellow-men.  I  should  be  glad  to  know 


THE  NATURE  OF  MORAL  SCIENCE.        161 

what  sectarianism  there  can  be  in  a  school 
master's  teaching  my  children  the  first  and 
second  tables  of  the  moral  law — to  £  love  the 
Lord  their  God  with  all  their  heart,  and  their 
neighbor  as  themselves' — in  teaching  them  to 
keep  the  Sabbath  holy,  to  honor  their  parents, 
not  to  swear,  nor  drink,  nor  lie,  nor  cheat, 
nor  steal,  nor  covet.  Yerily,  if  this  is  what 
any  mean  by  sectarianism,  then  the  more  we 
have  of  it  in  our  common  schools,  the  better. 
'  It  is  a  lamentation,  and  shall  be  for  a  lamen 
tation,'  that  there  is  so  little  of  it.  I  have  not 
the  least  hesitation  in  saying,  that  no  instructor, 
whether  male  or  female,  ought  ever  to  be  em 
ployed,  who  is  not  both  able  and  willing  to 
teach  morality  and  religion  in  the  manner 
which  I  have  just  alluded  to.  Were  this 
faithfully  done  in  all  the  primary  schools  of 
the  nation,  our  civil  and  religious  liberties, 
and  all  our  blessed  institutions,  would  be  in 
comparably  safer  than  they  are  now.  The 
parent  who  says,  I  do  not  send  my  child  to 
school  to  learn  religion,  but  to  be  taught  read 
ing,  and  writing,  and  grammar,  knows  not 
"what  manner  of  spirit  he  is  of."  It  is  very 
14* 


162  ARGUMENT  FROM 

certain  that  sucli  a  father  will  teach  his  chil 
dren  anything  but  religion  at  home ;  and  is  it 
right  that  they  should  be  left  to  grow  up  as 
heathens  in  a  Christian  land  ?  If  he  says  to 
the  schoolmaster,  I  do  not  wish  you  to  make 
my  son  an  Episcopalian,  a  Baptist,  a  Presby 
terian,  or  a  Methodist,  very  well.  This  is  not 
the  schoolmaster's  business.  He  was  not  hired 
to  teach  sectarianism.  But  if  the  parent  means 
to  say,  I  do  not  send  my  child  to  school  to 

J  i  J 

have  you  teach  him  to  fear  God,  and  keep  his 
commandments,  to  be  temperate,  honest  and 
true,  to  be  a  good  son  and  a  good  man,  then 
the  child  is  to  be  pitied  for  having  such  a 
father  ;  and  with  good  reason  might  we  trem 
ble  for  all  that  we  hold  most  dear,  if  such  re 
monstrances  were  to  be  multiplied  and  to  pre 
vail." 

It  is  argued  by  Eomanists  that  there  can  be 
no  greater  fallacy  than  to  suppose  that  because 
it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  State  that  its  citizens 
should  be  enlightened  and  virtuous,  therefore 
it  is  the  duty  or  business  of  the  State  to  make 
them  wise  and  virtuous  by  education.  Eo- 
manism  would  gladly,  were  it  possible,  take 


THE  NATURE  OF  MORAL  SCIENCE.        163 

this  right  and  duty  from  the  State,  and  vest  it 
only  in  the  Priests ;  and  then,  and  thus,  the 
children  might  universally  be  kept  in  darkness, 
and  Komanism  might  prevail. 


tttm  tjjat 


BUT  here  the  objector  meets  us,  and  assumes 
that  if  the  Bible  be  not  excluded,  the  Eoman- 
ists  will,  and  that  the  Bible  had  better  be  shut 
out,  than  the  Eomanists  shut  out.  To  this  it 
would  be  sufficient  to  say,  that  if  the  Bible  be 
excluded,  a  vastly  greater  number  who  require 
the  Bible,  and  have  an  unquestionable  right  to 
it,  will  be  shut  out,  and  that  the  Bible  had 
better,  be  admitted,  than  the  friends  of  the 
Bible  be  excluded.  Those  who  demand  the 
Bible  are  ten  to  one  compared  with  those  who 
reject  it  ;  and  those  who  would  be  conscien 
tiously  excluded  from  the  schools,  if  the  Bible 
were  excluded,  are  at  least  five  to  one,  com 
pared  with  those  who  would  be  driven  away 
by  its  admission.  Yet  the  insulting  demand 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWEKED.  165 

for  its  exclusion  is  a  demand  that  for  the  sake 
of  gratifying  one  million,  and  gathering  in  a 
portion  of  their  children  into  schools  from 
which  religion  is  driven  out,  you  shall  disre 
gard  the  rights  of  ten  millions,  and  compel 
them  either  to  establish  other  schools,  or  else 
to  submit  to  an  education  for  their  children, 
from  which  the  Bible,  and  religious  truths  are 
expelled.  Shall  the  two  millions  who  reject 
the  Bible,  rule  the  twenty  who  require  it,  and 
shall  the  rights  of  the  twenty  be  sacrificed  to 
meet  the  prejudices  of  the  two,  or  shall  the 
vast  and  overwhelming  majority  be  permitted 
to  retain  the  Bible,  without  injury  to  the 
rights  of  any  ?  Shall  a  very  small  minority 
be  admitted  to  spoil  an  education  for  the  ma 
jority,  or  shall  the  vast  majority  be  admitted 
to  vitalize  and  perfect  an  education  for  them 
selves  and  for  all  who  will  avail  themselves 
of  it?  Shall  the  conscience  of  the  majority 
or  that  of  the  minority  rule?  We  have  al 
ready  settled  that  question. 

There  are  two  false  assumptions  in  the  ob 
jection  ;  first,  that  if  the  Bible  be  not  excluded 
the  Bomanists  will  be  shut  out ;  and  second, 


166  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

that  if  the  Bible  be  excluded,  you  can  in  that 
way  induce  them  to  come  in.  They  will 
neither  be  shut  out  by  admitting  the  Bible, 
nor  will  they  be  drawn  in  by  excluding  the 
Bible.  They  wish,  indeed,  to  get  the  Bible 
out,  and  so  to  do  the  schools  all  the  injury  in 
their  power  ;  but  those  who  oppose  the  Bible 
have  no  intention  of  supporting  the  free  school 
system  at  any  rate.  The  Bible  of  the  schools 
is  not  the  source  of  their  objection  to  them, 
but  the  freedom  of  the  schools,  and  the  inter 
mingling  of  Eomish  and  Protestant  children, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  break  down  these  bar 
riers  of  cast  and  prejudice,  by  which  a  church- 
despotism  is  so  powerfully  sustained.  Their 
effort  against  the  Bible  is  but  a  battering-ram 
or  Eoman  Testudo,  under  cover  of  which  they 
advance  against  the  whole  system,  and  mean 
to  break  it  up. 

Besides,  the  Eomanists  are  not  shut  out,  in 
any  case,  but  have  perfect  freedom  of  ad 
mission,  if  they  will.  If  Haman  and  Mordecai 
are  both  invited  to  the  king's  feast,  and  if 
Hainan,  coming  to  the  door,  finds  that  Mordecai 
is  to  be  one  of  the  guests,  and  indeed  sees  him 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED.  167 

just  entering  on  the  other  side  of  the  way,  and 
retires  in  a  huff,  saying,  I  will  not  be  present 
at  the  same  feast  with  Mordecai,  nor  eat  salt 
with  him,  whose  fault  is  it  ?  Who  makes  the 
exclusion  ?  Can  he  justly  say  that  the  king 
has  shut  him  out,  because  Mordecai  was  in 
vited?  It  is  his  own  angry,  envious,  and 
inimical  feelings  that  have  shut  him  out ;  and 
was  it  the  duty  of  the  king  to  legislate  in  be 
half  of  those  injurious  feelings,  or  to  set  up 
new  sumptuary  regulations  to  please  his  mal 
ice?  Are  hatred  and  prejudice  proper  things 
to  be  fostered  and  protected  by  legislation, 
which,  at  the  same  moment  that  it  protects 
and  sustains  the  prejudice,  legislates  against 
those  who  happen  to  be  its  unfortunate  ob 
jects. 

Moreover,  let  us  next  see  what  use  the  Eo- 
manists  themselves  would  make  of  this  ex 
clusion.  They  demand  the  Bible  to  be  shut 
out,  on  the  pretence  that  it  is  a  bad  book,  a 
sectarian  book,  a  Protestant  book.  Accord 
ingly,  you.  put  the  excommunicating  brand 
upon  it,  and  shut  it  out.  What  language  does 
that  prohibition  speak  to  the  children  ?  What 


168  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

will  the  Komish  parents  and  the  priests  say  to 
the  youthful  members  of  their  flocks,  when 
they  desire  to  guard  them  against  the  Bible  ? 
What  could  they  ask,  for  argument  against  it, 
better  than  this  fact,  that  it  is  not  permitted  to 
be  read  or  taught  in  schools  ?  My  children, 
they  may  say,  it  stands  to  reason,  that  if  the 
Bible  were  a  good  book,  they  who  tell  you 
that  it  is,  would  permit  it  to  be  taught  to  their 
children.  But  the  Protestants  themselves  have 
shut  it  out ;  they  do  not  suffer  it  to  be  read, 
and  of  course  it  cannot  be  fit  to  be  read.  A 
book  of  their  own,  which  even  the  Protestants 
excommunicate,  must  be  a  bad  book  indeed ! 
Never  touch  it ! 

Then  again,  to  others  they  will  say,  Behold 
these  godless  schools !  These  Protestants 
have  a  religion,  which  they  have  the  impu 
dence  to  assert  is  better  than  ours,  and  yet 
they  dare  not  teach  it  to  their  children !  It 
can  surely  not  be  deemed  very  sacred  by  those, 
who  on  considerations  of  expediency,  consent 
to  keep  it  from  their  children,  consent  to  ex 
communicate  it  from  the  public  schools. 
Godless,  atheistic,  worthless  !  We  will  have 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED.  169 

nothing  to  do  with  such  an  education ;  we 
cannot,  and  will  not,  send  our  children  to 
such  places  !  And  here  they  would  find  not 
a  few  of  every  faith,  who  would  join  with 
them.  For  what  parent,  who  reverences  the 
Word  of  God,  and  believes  in  the  vital  import 
ance  of  its  religious  instructions,  would  con 
sent  to  send  his  children  to  schools,  from 
which  the  Word  of  God,  and  all  religious  in 
struction,  are  carefully,  zealously,  and  by 
legislation  excluded  ? 

But  now  as  to  the  reality.  Facts  have  al 
ready  shown,  and  daily  prove,  both  in  this 
country,  and  in  Scotland,  and  in  Prussia,  that 
many  Eomish  children  will  still  go  to  the 
schools  with  the  Bible  in  them ;  and  would 
not  go  any  more  frequently  or  willingly  with 
the  Bible  out  of  them  ;  and  surely,  if  we  could 
get  one-half  educated  with  the  Bible,  it  were 
better  than  the  whole  without.  Milton  said 
truly  that  God  cares  more  for  the  complete 
training  and  growth  of  one  virtuous  person, 
than  the  restraint  of  ten  vicious.  Eestraint  is 
all  that  we  can  hope  for  without  the  Scriptures ; 
no  religious  principle  is  possible,  but  with  and 

15 


170  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

by  them.  The  theory  and  legislation  that  re 
ject  them,  must,  to  be  consistent,  reject  all 
religious  bias,  all  religious  teaching.  This 
would  be  to  act  upon  the  principle  of  doing 
evil  that  good  may  come ;  nay,  far  worse  than 
even  that ;  it  would  be  doing  evil  (for  certainly 
the  withholding  of  the  Bible  and  of  religious 
instruction  from  the  young  is  doing  evil :  he 
that  withholdeth  corn,  the  people  shall  curse 
him  ;  how  much  more  he  that  steals  the  bread 
of  life  from  the  children),  I  say  it  would  be 
doing  evil,  that  an  evil  prejudice  may  not  be 
offended,  but  gratified;  and  in  order  that  a 
very  few,  comparatively,  may  be  kept  from 
contact  with  the  "Word  of  God,  who  hate  that 
"Word,  it  is  doing  the  evil  of  keeping  vast 
multitudes  from  it,  who  desire  and  need  it. 
Under  pretence  of  alluring  the  Komish  chil 
dren  into  the  commoB  schools  by  excluding 
the  Bible,  you  are  just  snatching  the  Bread  of 
Life  from  the  millions  of  youthful  hands  held 
out  for  it,  in  order  to  gratify  -the  comparative 
few  who  wish  to  be  without  it. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  not  so  much  a  jealousy 
against  the  Word  of  God,  that  instigates  this 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWEKED.  171 

exclusive  policy,  as  it  is  the  unwillingness  of 
Bomanists  to  have  their  children  mingle  freely 
with  the  children  of  Protestants,  in  the  same 
education,  under  the  same  religious  light. 
While  all  other  denominations  lay  aside  their 
sectarian  prejudices  at  the  door  of  the  school- 
house,  and  rejoice  to  mingle  as  one  family 
under  the  same  light  of  God's  Word,  the  Eo- 
man  Catholic  sect  alone  carry  their  sectarian 
prejudices  into  the  school-house,  and  would 
force  all  others  into  a  compliance  with  their 
rule.  The  truth  is,  they  are  opposed  to  such 
a  common  school  education  as  threatens  to 
break  down  the  barriers  of  sect,  and  of  priestly 
and  canon  law,  and  to  mingle  the  children  of 
all  persuasions  in  one  family,  under  one  com 
mon  religious  light.  Our  common  free  school 
system  does  this,  and  therefore  they  oppose  it. 
But  in  some  cases  the  experiment  of  exor 
cising  the  spirit  of  religion  to  accommodate 
the  demands  of  Eomanism,  has  been  made  on 
the  very  plea  of  being  able  thus  to  induce  the 
Eomanists  to  patronize  the  schools,  and  has 
utterly  failed ;  but1  other  and  disastrous  conse 
quences  have  not  failed.  An  Evening  Free 


172  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

School  had  been  for  some  years  established  in 
Salem.  On  the  plea  that  Eomanists  would 
not  attend  if  there  were  any  religious  influ 
ence  or  instruction  connected  with  the  school, 
such  influence  was  given  up  and  excluded. 
"  The  school  has  been  conducted  in  the  same 
manner  as  previously,  excepting  that  all  re 
ligious  exercises  have  been  dispensed  with,  in 
order  that  the  children  of  Eoman  Catholic  pa 
rents  might  be  free  to  attend.  This  change 
failed  of  producing  the  desired  effect,  our  (Ro 
man)  Catholic  brethren  having  provided  in 
struction  for  their  own  children.  But,  on 
other  grounds,  it  was  deemed  very  proper  and 
advisable.  Eeligious  exercises  are  not  under 
stood  by  the  class  of  youth  attending  such 
schools,  and  if  not  understood,  they  are  com 
monly  turned  to  ridicule,  and  that  is  infinitely 
worse  than  their  entire  omission." 

And  yet,  the  class  of  youth  attending  such 
schools,  are  stated  to  be  "poor  neglected  boys 
and  girls,  whose  circumstances  of  poverty  and 
work  would  not  allow  them  to  attend  day 
schools."  And  of  such  persons  it  is  asserted 
that  religious  exercises  cannot  be  understood  i 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWEKED.  178 

Two  hundred  and  sixteen  boys,  from  thirteen 
to  sixteen  years  of  age !  and  yet  not  able  to 
understand  religion !  and,  therefore,  the  con 
clusion  is  that  religion  must  not  be  taught! 
Instead  of  arguing  from  their  ignorance,  desti 
tution,  and  want  of  all  instruction  elsewhere, 
that  compassion  towards  them  so  much  the 
more  requires  a  religious  influence,  and  some 
religious  instruction  there,  the  argument  is  de 
liberately  offered,  that  they  cannot  understand 
religious  exercises !  And  perhaps,  too,  they 
cannot  understand  arithmetic ;  but  is  that  a 
reason  for  not  teaching  it  ?  Perhaps  they  do 
not  even  understand  reading ;  but  is  that  suf 
ficient  reason  for  not  teaching  them  their  let 
ters  ?  If  they  cannot  understand  religious 
exercises,  so  much  the  more  reason  for  begin 
ning,  in  some  way,  to  teach  them.  But  this 
reasoning,  and  the  disastrous  result  of  turning 
religion  out  of  school,  all  proceeds  from  the 
first  false  step  of  excluding  religious  exercises, 
in  the  vain  hope  of  securing  the  patronage  of 
Eomanists.  This  is  likely  to  be  the  result  of 
all  such  efforts. 

15* 


0f  %  880ri  0f 
in  0w  C0mtwm 


THE  potent  energy  of  God's  word  as  an  ele 
ment  of  regeneration  and  transfiguration,  both 
for  the  intellectual  and  moral  nature;  as  well 
as  the  certainty  of  the  Divine  blessing  attend 
ing  its  presence,  and  its  constant  power,  must 
have  been  forgotten,  if  not  denied,  by  those 
who  would  exclude  it  from  a  place  in  our  sys 
tem  of  Common  School  Education.  As  an 
element  of  quiet,  but  effectual  government 
and  order  in  the  schools,  it  would  be  invalua 
ble;  where  its  influence  is  judiciously  em 
ployed,  by  a  teacher  whose  heart  loves  it,  pun 
ishment  is  but  seldom  needed.  It  is  a  forcible 
preventing,  as  well  as  reforming  element,  yet 
ever  gentle,  instructive,  and  persuasive.  What 
an  agency  of  power,  kindness,  and  love,  is 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD.  175 

foregone,  neglected,  rejected,  when  the  Bible 
is  excluded  from  the  system  of  instruction  and 
discipline  in  school.  And  what  a  delightful 
and  attractive  variety,  in  both  the  form  and 
material  of  thought,  feeling,  and  imagination, 
in  history,  parable,  poetry,  argument  and  pre 
cept,  in  the  lessons  prepared  by  the  Great 
Teacher  of  mankind,  and  given  to  our  race  un 
der  the  gracious  perpetual  sanction  of  our 
birth- right  from  heaven,  with  the  assurance 
that  the  things  that  are  revealed  belong  to  us 
and  to  our  children  forever ! 

That  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  is  the  most  marked  and  explicit  rec 
ord  of  an  educational  process,  as  sanctioned 
of  God.  Doubtless,  it  ought  to  be  the  process 
with  every  immortal  being  in  a  Christian 
State ;  and  it  might  be,  with  nearly  every  one, 
if  the  State  performed  its  full  responsibility. 
And  when  we  think  of  that  responsibility  as 
extending,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  to  the 
children  of  more  than  a  hundred  millions,  who 
will  at  once,  within  the  limits  of  another  gen 
eration,  be  the  inhabitants  of  our  country,  and 
think  of  all  those  children,  during  the  whole 


176  THE  WORD   OF   GOD 

period  of  their  education  undertaken  by  the 
State,  as  deprived  of  the  Word  of  God  with 
all  its  hallowing  and  sanctifying  influences,  its 
wondrous  winning  and  perpetual  power  of  sa 
cred  training  and  restraint,  we  regard  with 
amazement  the  heedlessness,  not  to  say  reck 
lessness  of  consequences,  with  which  any  man 
can  deliberately  and  earnestly  propose  and  la 
bor  for  the  exclusion  of  that  Divine  agency 
from  the  whole  circle  of  an  education  so  vast 
and  important. 

To  think  how  great  and  beneficial  an  influ 
ence  is  exerted  during  the  period  of  one  year, 
in  a  single  district  school,  by  the  falling  of  the 
Word  of  .God,  as  the  gentle  dew  from  Heaven, 
in  the  hushed  stillness  of  the  school,  morning 
and  evening,  on  so  many  opening  and  sus 
ceptible  minds  and  hearts  ;  and  then  to  think 
of  the  possibility  of  making  that  the  reverent 
habit  of  the  schools  of  twenty  millions ;  and 
then  to  think  of  that  influence  carried  forward 
from  year  to  year,  as  uninterrupted  as  the  ris 
ing  and  setting  of  the  sun,  through  a  period  of 
thirty  years,  when  the  children  of  a  population 
of  more  than  two  hundred  millions  may  be 


IN  OUR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  177 

thus  gathered  beneath  the  same  Divine  Hand, 
the  same  beneficent  impression !  How  impos 
ing,  how  majestic,  how  delightful  the  sight  of 
the  children  of  a  whole  nation,  every  day  si 
lently  listening,  at  the  same  hour,  to  the  words 
of  their  Father  in  Heaven,  and  uniting  at  the 
same  hour  in  the  petition,  Our  Father!  To 
think  that  this  might  be,  was  in  likelihood  of 
being,  and  then  to  conceive  the  plan  of  thwart 
ing  this  possibility,  and  to  labor  by  argument 
and  management  for  preventing  it !  Does  it 
seem  possible  that  such  an  effort  can  co-exist 
with  Christian  principle  ?  Are  the  two  com 
patible  ? 

In  this  connection,  how  strikingly  and  sol 
emnly  beautiful  are  the  words  of  John  Foster, 
in  reference  to  the  inestimable  value  of  the 
union  of.  religious  truth  with  secular  instruc 
tion,  and  the  security  and  happiness  of  the 
mind  advancing  forward  to  the  responsibilities 
of  life,  and  the  command  of  thought  and  ac 
tion,  under  such  a  discipline.  He  imagines  a 
visitor  gazing  on  the  busy  operations  of  such 
a  school,  and  watching  the  multitude  of  youth 
ful  spirits.  u  They  are  thus  treading  in  the 


178  THE  WORD   OF  GOD 

precincts  of  an  intellectual  economy ;  the 
economy  of  thought  and  truth,  in  which  they 
are  to  live  forever;  and  never,  to  eternity, 
will  they  have  to  regret  this  period  and  part 
of  their  employments.  The  visitor  will  be  de 
lighted  to  think  how  many  disciplined  actions 
of  the  mind,  how  many  just  ideas,  distinctly 
admitted,  that  were  strangers  at  the  beginning 
of  the  day's  exercise, — and  among  these  ideas, 
some  to  remind  them  of  God  and  their  highest 
interest, — there  will  have  been,  by  the  time 
the  busy  and  well-ordered  company  breaks  up 
in  the  evening,  and  leaves  silence  within  these 
walls.  He  will  not,  indeed,  grow  romantic  in 
hope ;  he  knows  too  much  of  the  nature  to 
which  these  beings  belong  ;  knows,  therefore, 
that  the  desired  results  of  this  discipline  will 
but  partially  follow ;  but  still  rejoices  to  think 
that  partial  result,  which  will  most  certainly 
follow,  will  be  worth  incomparably  more  than 
all  it  will  have  cost." 

"  The  friends  of  these  designs  for  a  general 
and  highly -improved  education,  may  proceed 
further  in  this  course  of  verifying  to  them 
selves  the  grounds  of  their  assurance  of  happy 
16 


IN  OUR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  179 

results.  A  number  of  ideas  decidedly  the 
most  important  that  were  ever  formed  in  hu 
man  thought,  or  imparted  from  the  Supreme 
Mind,  will  be  so  taught  in  these  institutions, 
that  it  is  absolutely  certain  they  will  be  fixed 
irrevocably  and  forever  in  the  minds  of  many 
of  the  pupils.  It  will  be  as  impossible  to 
erase  these  ideas  from  their  memories,  as  to 
extinguish  the  stars.  And  in  the  case  of 
many,  perhaps  the  majority,  of  these  youthful 
beings,  advancing  into  the  temptations  of  life, 
these  grand  ideas,  thus  fixed  deep  in  their 
souls,  will  distinctly  present  themselves  to  the 
judgment  and  conscience  an  incalculable  num 
ber  of  times.  What  a  number,  if  the  sum  of 
all  these  reminiscences  of  these  ideas,  in  all 
the  minds  now  assembled  in  a  numerous 
school,  could  be  conjectured  !  But  if  one  in  a 
hundred  of  these  recollections,  if  one  in  a 
thousand,  shall  have  the  efficacy  that  it  ought 
to  have,  who  can  compute  the  amount  of  the 
good  resulting  from  the  tuition  which  shall 
have  so  enforced  and  fixed  these  ideas,  that 
they  shall  be  infallibly  thus  recollected  ?  And 
is  it  altogether  out  of  reason  to  hope  that  the 


180  THE   WORD   OF  GOD 

desired  efficacy  will,  as  often  as  once  in  a 
thousand  times,  attend  the  luminous  rising 
again  of  a  solemn  idea  to  the  view  of  the 
mind  ?  Is  still  less  than  this  to  be  hoped  for 
our  unhappy  nature,  and  that,  too,  while  a  be 
neficent  God  has  the  superintendence  of  it?"* 
But  if  this  cannot  be  expected  even  under 
the  best  of  means,  what  can  be  anticipated 
without  them  ?  What  from  a  school  where 
religion  is  disowned,  and  the  Bible  rejected? 
Can  the  Divine  blessing  be  upon  that?  The 
same  Divine  bounty  that  has  given  the  whole 
of  revelation  as  belonging  to  us  and  to  our 
children  forever,  has  connected  the  assurance 
of  a  beneficent  influence  and  power  to  accom 
pany  the  teaching  of  God's  Word,  and  that  it 
never  shall  be  separated  from  it.  It  is  con 
veyed  in  language  like  the  following : — "  This 
is  my  covenant  with  them,  saith  the  Lord ; 
my  Spirit  that  is  upon  thee,  and  my  words 
which  I  have  put  in  thy  mouth,  shall  not  de 
part  out  of  thy  mouth,  nor  out  of  the  mouth 
of  thy  seed,  nor  out  of  the  mouth  of  thy 
seed's  seed,  saith  the  Lord,  from  henceforth 
and  forever. "f 

*  Foster  on  Popular  Ignorance,  ch.  2,  f  Is.  lix,  21. 


IN  OUH  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  181 

But  those  who  argue  for  the  banishment  of 
the  Bible  from  our  schools,  would  take  away 
this  pledge  and  assurance  of  a  blessing  from 
heaven,  and  would  leave  the  youthful  race  of 
immortal  beings,  defrauded  of  their  inherit 
ance,  their  birth-right,  not  indeed  to  the  un- 
covenanted  mercies  of  God,  but  to  the  power 
and  providence  of  a  system  that  permits  no 
reference  to  his  mercies,  and  no  knowledge  of 
them.  These  men  would  shut  up  the  youth 
ful  mind  in  its  pursuit  of  knowledge,  and  its 
disciplinary  development,  within  a  narrower 
way,  bounded  by  high  blank  walls,  over  which 
it  is  forbidden  to  look,  even  were  that  pos 
sible  ;  beyond  which,  stretches  an  infinite  reach 
of  thought  and  knowledge,  a  region  of  bright 
celestial  light,  none  of  which  must  be  let  in 
upon  the  secular-beaten  lane,  which  alone  the 
young  scholar  is  commissioned  to  travel.  No 
teacher  must  presume  to  communicate  an  inti 
mation  to  his  pupils  concerning  that  bright 
land,  nor  by  any  conveyance  to  let  in  that 
celestial  radiance,  lest  sectarianism  should  rush 
in  with  it. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE 

AND  OF 

Instattifln  in  %  Jf  wale  Sr  jpwls* 

ITS    INTERDICTION    ODIOUS. 


IT  is  ever  to  be  remembered  how  large  a 
proportion  of  the  children  attending  our  com 
mon  schools  are  girls,  and  the  teachers, 
females  ;  and  how  peculiarly  appropriate  and 
essential  for  them,  both  for  instruction  and 
government,  the  lessons  of  the  Sacred  Scrip 
tures.  What  agency  is  so  powerful  for  train 
ing  the  sensibilities,  for  refining  the  manners, 
for  purifying  the  heart,  for  directing  and  estab 
lishing  the  principles,  the  feelings,  the  senti 
ments,  the  habits  of  thought,  in  that  gentle, 
and  yet  elevated  and  impressive  character, 
which  we  wish  to  see  possessed  by  every 
woman,  and  especially  every  mother  of  our 
Republic  ?  Of  all  motives,  those  of  religion 
16* 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.  183 

are  best  adapted  and  most  effectual  in  the  dis 
cipline  and  government  of  the  schools;  but 
especially  are  religious  sanctions  and  instruc 
tions  important  in  female  schools.  The  idea 
of  educating  the  female  mind  of  our  coun 
try,  in  the  proposed  exclusion  of  the  Bible 
and  of  all  religious  instruction,  is  really  an  in 
sult  to  the  common  convictions  of  humanity 
in  a  Christian  State. 

Just  think  of  the  absurdity,  the  tyranny,  of 
placing  the  children  and  their  teacher  under 
such  a  regimen,  because  of  the  fear  of  the 
charge  of  sectarianism,  that  the  teacher  shall 
not  dare  to  comment  even  on  the  simplest, 
sweetest,  most  comprehensive  sayings,  invita 
tions,  parables,  or  actions,  of  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  !  Think  of  such  an  espionage  and 
interdiction,  that  in  a  lesson,  for  example,  from 
the  Gospel  of  John,  "  I  am  the  resurrection 
and  the  life,  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  whoso 
ever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me,  shall  never 
die,"  the  trembling  teacher  shall  not  dare  so 
much  as  tell  the  listening  girls  the  duty  of 
trusting  in  such  a  Saviour,  and  loving  him, 


184  IMPOKTANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE 

and  following  his  example,  and'resting  on  him 
unto  life  eternal !  Shall  not  dare  impress  the 
sweetest,  most  common,  most  essential  prin 
ciples  of  Christianity  upon  those  tender  hearts 
and  awakening  consciences,  for  their  guidance, 
their  character,  their  welfare,  in  this  world 
and  in  that  which  is  to  come !  Think  of 
classes  and  teachers  under  this  fear,  lest  some 
inquisitorial  commissioner  should  enter,  and 
mark  this  process  of  celestial  light  as  en 
dangering  the  entrance  of  sectarianism,  and 
therefore  not  to  be  permitted,  out  of  respect 
to  the  conscientious  rights  of  those  who  re 
quire  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  and  of  all  re 
ligious  instruction. 

And  yet,  this  jealousy,  espionage,  and 
trembling  fear,  is  inevitable  the  moment  you 
admit  that  the  simplest  religious  instruction  is 
sectarian,  and  that  the  government  have  no 
right  to  give  religious  instruction  to  the  chil 
dren  of  the  State.  But  such  a  rule  and  such 
an  admission  is  directly  contrary  to  the  princi 
ples  laid  down  under  sanction  of  the  State 
itself  in  the  foundation  of  our  common  school 
system ;  nay,  contrary  to  the  very  definition 


IN  THE  FEMALE  SCHOOLS.  185 

of  education,  as  given,  again  and  again,  by 
our  governors  and  legislative  bodies.  It  is  a 
monstrous  wrong,  an  oppression  and  a  fraud 
incalculable,  to  confound  religion  and  secta 
rianism,  and  to  assert  that  because  the  latter 
is  forbidden,  and  most  justly  forbidden,  there 
fore  the  former  shall  not  be  taught,  for  fear  of 
opening  the  door  for  the  latter.  What  a  tri 
umph  for  the  Tempter  of  mankind,  if  politi 
cians,  at  the  instigation  of  those  who  slander 
the  Bible  itself  as  sectarian,  can  be  authorized 
to  exclude  religion  from  our  schools,  to  banish 
all  the  lessons  of  Christianity  from  the  knowl 
edge  and  affection  of  the  opening  minds  of 
those  millions  of  our  children  who  receive  no 
education  .whatever  but  that  which  the  State 
gives  them ! 

The  exclusion  of  the  Bible  and  of  all  relig 
ious  bias  would  be  followed  inevitably  by  a 
fear  and  jealousy  of  all  religious  teaching,  and 
by-and-bye,  when  any  allusion  should  be  made 
by  the  teacher  to  God,  Christ,  and  religious 
motives  and  sanctions,  there  would  be  an  in 
stinctive  repulsion,  as  if  this  were  trenching 
on  forbidden  ground.  The  threat  of  banish- 


186  IMPOKTANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE 

ing  the  teachers,  if  they  do  not  banish  all  re 
ligious  bias  from  their  instruction,  would  be 
more  and  more  frequent,  and  the  common 
schools  would  come,  by  common  law  of  prac 
tice  and  exclusion,  to  be  fearful  inquisitorial 
domiciles  of  jealousy  against  Divine  truth. 

Scarcely  anything  can  be  conceived  more 
intolerably  odious  than  such  a  tyrannical  in 
terdiction  operating  on  the  mind  and  con 
science  of  the  teacher.  And  yet,  this  is  the 
very  result  to  which  this  extreme  dread  of 
sectarianism,  and  the  exclusion  of  all  posi 
tive  religious  influence  in  consequence  of  that 
dread,  would  soon  come,  if  not  prevented ;  and 
would  no  more  dare  to  instruct  a  youthful 
pupil  as  to  the  character  of  the  Saviour  and 
the  duty  of  faith  in  him,  than  under  the  Aus 
trian  despotism  a  teacher  would  dare  instruct 
his  pupils  in  the  nature  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  and  the  rights  of  man.  There,  every 
thing  is  free  to  be  taught  but  freedom;  and 
here,  it  is  proposed  that  everything  shall  be 
free  to  be  taught  but  the  Bible  and  religion ;  the 
moment  you  trench  upon  the  province  of  re 
ligious  truth,  some  political  informer  shall  de- 


IN  THE  FEMALE  SCHOOLS.  187 

nounce  you  as  a  teacher  of  sectarianism  in  the 
public  schools.  On  that  subject  of  religion 
you  must  keep  you  mouth  shut ;  not  one  word 
of  instruction  must  you  drop,  or  the  inquisitor 
shall  be  upon  you.  You  shall  not  be  permitted 
even  to  explain  a  passage  of  Scripture.  If  the 
Bible  is  read  at  all  in  school,  or  used  as  a  class- 
book,  not  a  comment  must  be  made  upon  its 
instructions,  lest  you  open  -  the  door  to  the 
horrid  monster  of  sectarianism. 

Now,  this  is  anything  but  compatible  with 
a/ree  school  system.  Yet  this  very  throttling 
and  suffocation  of  all  religious  inquiry  and 
communication  is  contended  for,  on  the  plea 
that  if  religion  is  introduced  at  all,  it  opens 
the  door  for  sectarianism,  and  none  can  tell 
where  it  would  stop.  By  the  very  same  argu 
ment,  liberty  must  be  choaked  and  silenced ; 
for  any  discussion  of  the  principles  of  that, 
opens  the  door  to  anarchy  and  rebellion ;  and 
so  the  freedom  of  the  press  must  be  stopped, 
for  otherwise  it  runs  into  libels  and  licentious 
ness.  But  the  answer  in  all  these  cases  is 
just  this :  that  when  the  offence  comes,  then 
it  is  time  enough  to  stop  it,  and  that  you  have 


188  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE 

no  right  to  prevent  liberty  itself  for  the  pur 
pose  of  preventing  the  abuse  of  liberty.  Let 
the  press  go  free,  and  when  any  man  abuses 
that  freedom,  bring  him  up  for  it,  to  trial  and 
punishment.  And  just  so,  let  religion  go  free 
in  the  schools,  and  wait  till  some  sectarian 
abuses  the  privilege,  and  stop  the  abuse,  but 
not  the  privilege.  Do  not  put  a  ban  before 
hand  upon  religion  and  religious  instruction, 
under  pretence  of  preventing  sectarianism. 
For  religious  instruction  is  one  thing,  and  a 
thing  entirely  proper  and  necessary  for  the 
schools ;  but  sectarianism  is  another  thing, 
and  entirely  improper.  And  it  is  not  true  that 
you  cannot  have  religious  influence  and  in 
struction  without  sectarianism.  Will  any  one 
dare  to  call  our  Saviour's  parables  sectarian  ? 
Yet  under  the  rule  of  exclusion  contended  for, 
no  teacher  in  the  schools  might  dare  explain 
the  least  of  those  parables,  not  even  so  much 
as  to  tell  an  energetic  child  what  is  the  mean 
ing  of  the  pearl  of  great  price.  If  anything 
of  that  kind  comes  up,  some  are  ready  to  say, 
let  the  child  be  referred  to  its  parents  or  its 
pastor.  But  suppose  it  has  neither  parents 


IN  THE  FEMALE  SCHOOLS.  189 

nor  pastor ;  or  suppose  that  the  pastor  is  a 
priest,  who  hates  the  Bible,  and  the  parents 
keep  a  grog  shop.  Where,  in  that  case,  shall 
the  child  be  referred  to,  for  a  knowledge  of 
the  pearl  of  great  price  ? 

One  object  of  a  good  education  is  to  make 
the  children  inquisitive,  and  the  teachers  who 
know  their  business,  will  always  encourage  the 
asking  of  questions,  and  the  utmost  kindness 
and  freedom  in  answering  them.  What  is  a 
school  worth,  that  represses  all  this  freedom 
instead  of  stimulating  it  ?  But  shall  there  be 
this  freedom  only  on  secular,  and  never  on  re 
ligious  things?  Suppose  you  have  a  class 
reading  in  the  New  Testament.  That  sweet 
and  blessed  passage  happens  to  be  in  the  read 
ing  lesson,  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest. 
Have  you  got  to  stop  all  your  faculties  of  sug 
gestion,  of  inquiry,  of  instruction  there,  and 
put  a  hermetical  seal  on  the  minds  and  lips  of 
your  pupils,  because  it  is  a  religious  lesson, 
and  on  that  there  must  be  no  comment  ?  If 
not,  how  will  you  get  along  ?  Suppose  that 
you  ask,  (as  a  good  teacher  will  certainly  en- 


190  IMPORTANCE    OF  THE  BIBLE 

courage  the  art  and  habit  of  questioning,)  Has 
any  one  any  questions  on  the  lesson?  and 
suppose  that  one  bright  little  boy  inquires  if 
that  verse  means  the  young  as  well  as  the  old, 
or  who  it  is  that  he  must  come  to,  or  how  he 
must  come?  Oh,  you  say,  hush,  my  boy, 
there  must  be  nothing  of  religious  instruction 
here ;  but  you  may  ask  your  father  and  moth 
er  when  you  go  home.  Father  and  mother ! 
What  if  the  child  comes  from  the  Five  Points  ? 
And  why  not  also  send  him  to  father  and 
mother  for  the  solution  of  his  knots  and  diffi 
culties  in  questions  of  grammar  and  arith 
metic  ?  Perhaps  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  he 
might  be  more  likely  to  obtain  that  knowledge 
at  home,  than  he  would  to  gain  any  salutary 
instructions  or  ideas  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
The  foundation  of  Normal  schools,  or  insti 
tutions  of  education  for  teachers,  to  prepare 
them  for  their  work,  is  referred  by  Lord 
Brougham  to  Fellenberg,  the  philosopher  of 
Hofwyl,  of  whom  he  thus  speaks: — "  This 
happy  idea  originated  with  my  old  and  vener 
able  friend,  Emanuel  Fellenberg,  a  name  not 
more  known  than  honored,  nor  more  honored 


IN  THE  FEMALE  SCHOOLS.  191 

than  his  virtuous  and  enlightened  efforts  in 
the  cause  of  education  and  for  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  deserve." 

And  now  let  us  mark  Fellenberg's  own  ex 
pression  of  his  feelings  to  the  lamented  Presi 
dent  Fisk,  speaking  on  the  exclusion  of  the 
Bible  and  religion  from  a  common  school  sys 
tem  of  education.  He  had  received  a  some 
what  exaggerated  account  of  the  matter  in 
America,  and  Dr.  Fisk  gives  the  conversation 
as  follows : — "  Mr.  Fellenberg  expressed  his 
very  great  surprise  at  the  neglect  of  religious 
instruction  in  our  schools  in  America ;  that 
the  Bible  was  excluded  as  a  regular  text-book ; 
in  short,  that  in  the  United  States,  among  a 
religious,  a  Protestant,  an  enlightened,  a  free 
people,  man  should  be  educated  so  much  in 
view  of  his  physical  wants,  and  his  temporal 
existence,  vfhile  the  moral  feelings  of  the  heart, 
and  our  religious  relations  to  God  and  eter 
nity,  should  be  left  so  much  out  of  our  schools. 
But,  he  said,  the  great  principles  of  our  religion 
would  come  into  collision  with  no  man's  views 
who  believed  in  Christianity  ;  and  that,  at  any 
rate,  party  views  were  nothing  in  comparison 


192  IMPOKTANCE   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

with  the  importance  of  religious  training ;  and 
therefore  every  good  man  ought  to  be  willing 
to  make  some  sacrifices  of  party  views  for  the 
great  benefits  of  an  early  religious  education." 

Nothing  could  be  more  just  and  appropri 
ate  than  these  sentiments.  They  may  be  con 
joined  with  Professor  Stowe's  remarks  on  the 
moral  training  in  the  common  schools  of 
Prussia,  from  his  Eeport  on  the  course  of  edu 
cation  in  those  schools. 

"Another  striking  feature  of  the  system," 
says  he,  "is  its  moral  and  religious  character. 
Its  morality  is  pure  and  elevated,  its  religion 
entirely  removed  from  the  narrowness  of  sec 
tarian  bigotry.  What  parent  is  there,  loving 
his  children,  and  wishing  to  have  them  re 
spected  and  happy,  who  would  not  desire  that 
they  should  be  educated  under  such  a  moral 
and  religious  influence  ?  Whether  a  believer 
in  revelation  or  not,  does  he  not  know  that 
without  sound  morals  there  can  be  no  happi 
ness,  and  that  there  is  no  morality  like  the 
morality  of  the  New  Testament?  Does  he 
not  know  that,  without  religion,  the  human 
heart  can  never  be  at  rest,  and  that  there  is  no 


IN  THE  FEMALE  SCHOOLS.  193 

religion  like  the  religion  of  the  Bible  ?  Every 
well-informed  man  knows  that,  as  a  general 
fact,  it  is  impossible  to  impress  the  obligations 
of  morality  with  any  efficiency  on  the  heart 
of  a  child,  or  even  on  that  of  an  adult,  with 
out  an  appeal  to  some  code,  which  is  sustained 
by  the  authority  of  God ;  and  for  what  code 
will  it  be  possible  to  claim  this  authority,  if 
not  for  the  code  of  the  Bible  ?" 

Professor  Stowe's  able  Keport  should  be 
studied  by  those  who  imagine  that  religious 
iustruction  must  of  necessity  be  sectarian. 
Few  things  can  be  more  instructive  and  im 
pressive  than  his  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  religious  and  moral  instruction  is  com 
municated  in  select  Bible  narratives,  in  friend 
ly  and  familiar  conversation  between  the  teach 
er  and  the  class.  At  a  somewhat  more  ad 
vanced  age,  the  whole  of  the  historical  part 
of  the  Bible  is  studied  thoroughly  and  sys 
tematically,  without  the  least  sectarian  bias, 
and  without  a  moment  being  spent  on  a  single 
idea  that  will  not  be  of  the  highest  use  to  the 
scholar  during  all  his  future  life. 
17 


NECESSITY  OF  A 

Christian  C0mm0n 


FOE  A 

LIVING  AND  PROGRESSIVE  CIVILIZATION. 

•% 

IT-  was  a  very  profound  remark  of  the  great 
German  Poet  and  Historian,  Schiller,  that  "  it 
is  not  enough  that  all  intellectual  improve 
ment  deserves  our  regard  only  so  far  as  it 
flows  back  upon  the  character  ;  it  must  in  a 
manner  proceed  from  the  character  ;  since  the 
way  to  the  head  must  be  opened  through  the  heart" 

The  world,  therefore,  is  wholly  wrong  in 
this  matter  of  education,  when  it  administers 
its  own  medicaments  only,  its  own  elements, 
its  own  food,  and  nothing  higher,  its  own 
knowledge  without  the  celestial  life  of  knowl 
edge.  Power  it  gives,  without  guidance,  with 
out  principles.  It  is  just  as  if  the  art  of  ship 
building  should  be  conducted  without  helms, 


A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.          195 

and  all  ships  set  afloat  to  be  guided  by  the 
winds  only.  For  such  are  the  immortal  ships 
on  the  sea  of  human  life  without  the  Bible ; 
its  knowledge,  its  principles,  ought  from  the 
first  to  be  as  much  a  part  of  the  educated,  in 
telligent  constitution,  as  the  keel  or  rudder  is 
part  and  parcel  of  a  well-built  ship.  Eeligious 
instruction,  therefore,  and  the  breath  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  ought  to  be  breathed  into 
the  child's  daily  life  of  knowledge,  and  not 
put  off  to  the  Sabbath,  when  your  children 
are  addressed  from  the  pulpit,  or  a  small  por 
tion  of  the  young  are  gathered  into  Sabbath 
Schools.  Above  all  the  elements  of  knowl 
edge,  that  of  religion  is  for  all.  If  in  their 
daily  schools,  children  were  educated  for  eter 
nity,  as  well  as  time,  there  would  be  more 
good  citizens,  a  deeper  piety  in  life,  a  more  sa 
cred  order  and  heaven-like  beauty  in  the  re 
public,  a  better  understanding  of  law,  a  more 
patient  obedience  of  it.  If  our  education 
would  be  one  that  States  can  live  by,  and 
flourish,  it  must  be  ordered  in  the  Scriptures. 

Romanism,  in  its  attacks  against  the  Word 
of  God,  forms  a  rallying  point  for  all  the  infi- 


196         A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION. 

delity  and  atheism  of  a  country.  Whoever 
and  whatever  hates  the  light  of  the  Bible,  will 
shout  encouragement  to  the  sect  that  dares 
make  a  crusade  against  it.  All  elements  of 
darkness  and  of  evil  will  come  trooping  to  its 
assistance.  The  time  for  prayer  and  vigilance, 
therefore,  against  its  advances,  is  now.  By- 
and-bye,  the  genius  of  a  protective  piety  that 
has  slumbered,  may  awake  when  it  is  too  late 
to  avoid  great  disaster. 

Some  errors  are  so  subtle  and  dangerous  in 
their  nature,  that  if  you  do  not  take  them  in 
their  infancy,  but  allow  them  to  accumulate, 
you  afterwards  dare  not  approach  them.  You 
must  have  a  Safety  Lamp,  or  you  cannot  se 
curely  examine  them.  If  you  carry  the  open 
torch  of  Truth,  they  will  explode,  like  the 
pestiferous  mine-gas,  and  blow  you  up.  If 
men  do  not  take  care,  this  will  be  the  case 
with  Eomanism  in  its  inveterate  and  deadly 
antagonism  against  the  Scriptures ;  there  will 
be  such  an  accumulation  of  this  despotic  ele 
ment,  that  loves  the  darkness  and  hates  the 
light,  that  it  will  be  as  much  as  a  man's  life  is 
worth,  even  to  examine  it ;  it  has  been  so  in 


A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION.          197 

other  countries,  and  some  day,  if  we  let  it 
work  successfully  against  the  Bible  in  our 
schools,  it  will  make  an  explosion  that  will 
shatter  our  whole  system. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  beware  of  the  false  confi 
dence,  that  because  in  a  past  generation  we 
have  had  the  Bible  at  the  foundation,  we  can 
now  afford  to  dispense  with  it.  Let  us  beware 
of  the  delusion  that  a  civilization  which  began 
in  Christianity,  can  be  progressive  without 
Christianity,  or  that  a  freedom,  which  was  the 
gift  of  heaven  and  heavenly  truth,  can  be  per 
manent,  separated  from  heaven. 

"  When  in  the  seventeenth  century,"  says 
the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  "Europe  emerged  out 
of  the  blood  and  destruction  into  which  the 
Pope  and  the  Eomish  or  Komanizing  dynas 
ties  had  plunged  it,  the  world,  which  had  seen 
its  double  hope  blighted,  was  almost  in  de 
spair  both  of  religious  and  of  civil  liberty. 
The  eighteenth  century,  not  satisfied  with  the 
conventional  theodicea  of  that  genius  of  com 
promise,  Leibnitz,  found  no  universal  organ 
for  the  philosophy  of  history,  except  the 
French  Encyclopedic  School ;  and  this  school 
17* 


198         A  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION. 

had  no  regenerating  and  reconstructive  idea, 
save  that  of  perfectibility  and  progress.  But 
what  is  humanity  without  God?  What  is 
natural  religion?  What  is  progress  without 
its  goal  ?  These  philosophers  were  not  with 
out  belief  in  the  sublime  mission  of  mankind, 
but  they  wanted  ethical  earnestness  as  much  as 
real  learning  and  depth  of  thought.  They 
pointed  to  civilization  as  to  the  goal  of  the 
race  which  mankind  had  to  run.  But  civil 
ization  is  an  empty  word,  and  may  be,  as 
China  and  Byzantium  show,  a  caput  mortuum 
of  real  life,  a  mummy  dressed  up  in  the  sem 
blance  of  living  reality."* 

*  Hyppolitus  and  his  Age.     Vol.  2,  p.  8. 


%  psi0rpf  C 


AND   THE 


$4001  Stetota,  in  gleto  |0ri 

THE  whole  history  of  the  system  of  com 
mon  schools  in  our  country  is  the  history  of 
the  efforts  of  men  who  desired  to  place  the 
Bible  and  religious  truth  in  them,  and  as 
the  foundation  of  them.  Our  towns  were  little 
republics  with  the  Bible  for  their  foundation. 
Our  schools  were  little  republics  also,  with  the 
Bible  there.  The  idea  of  divorcing  the  Bible 
from  common  schools,  and  common  schools 
from  the  Bible  and  its  religious  instructions, 
would  have  been  repugnant  to  the  whole  feel 
ing,  conviction,  and  determination  of  their 
founders.  It  would  have  been  the  wreck  of 
any  system  of  education,  to  propose  that  the 
Scriptures,  and  all  religious  bias,  should  be 


200  THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS 

excluded  from  them ;  and  it  will  be  so  still ; 
the  country  will  not  bear  it.  More  and  more 
the  affections  of  the  people  will  be  alienated 
from  the  common  schools,  if  we  take  the  Bible 
out  from  them.  Eespectable,  and  religious, 
and  well-informed  parents,  will  cease  to  send 
their  children  to  them  ;  and  they  will  become 
the  resort  only  of  the  careless,  the  reckless, 
the  utterly  poor  and  destitute,  and  of  those 
who  never  at  home  receive  the  light  of  divine 
truth  or  enjoy  the  fostering  and  restraining 
influence  of  a  religious  education.  And  when 
there  comes  to  be  such  a  division,  as  come 
there  must,  if  the  Bible  and  religion  be  ex 
cluded  from  the  schools,  then  will  our  com 
mon  schools  go  down ;  the  most  lavish  mu 
nificence  on  the  part  of  the  State  could  not 
keep  them  up  ;  the  most  patronising,  or  even 
compulsory  legislation  would  be  in  vain  to 
support  them.  They  depend  upon  the  affec 
tion  and  respect  of  the  moral,  the  religious, 
and  the  better  instructed  part  of  the  commun 
ity;  and  when  that  ceases,  the  schools  must 
go  into  contempt.  The  conscience  of  the 
church  in  this  country  cannot  long  be  blinded 


OF  NEW  YORK.  201 

or  stupefied  on  this  subject  /  it  will  awake ; 
but  it  may  awake  when  it  is  too  late  to  re 
store  to  the  "Word  of  God  the  place  which  it 
rightfully  claims ;  and  then,  conscience  itself 
would  destroy  the  school  system. 

It  claims  that  place,  not  only  rightfully,  and 
from  its  very  authority  as  the  Word  of  God, 
but  also  historically,  by  long-established  law 
and  custom.  And  we  are  now  to  show,  by 
historical  survey,  and  appeals  to  the  Statute 
Book,  as  well  as  to  the  habit  and  usage  of  the 
States  and  towns  foremost  in  the  work  of  edu 
cation,  that  the  plan  of  excluding  the  Bible, 
and  all  positive  religious  instruction  and  influ 
ence,  is  a  new  and  modern  scheme  concocted  for 
a  particular  political  emergency  or  purpose  ; 
an  innovation,  contrary  in  every  case  to  the 
views  and  principles  of  the  founders  of  the 
school  system,  the  convictions  of  the  wisest 
men  in  our  country,  the  custom  of  our  towns 
and  villages,  and  the  explicit  provisions  of 
our  school  laws. 

The  History  of  the  Common  School  system 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  is  full  of  instruc 
tion  and  warning.  It  begins  with  the  first 


202  THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS 

meeting  of  the  State  Legislature,  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  when  the  Gov 
ernor,  George  Clinton,  introduced  the  great 
subject  in  his  speech,  as  follows: 

"  Neglect  of  the  education  of  youth,  is  one 
of  the  evils  consequent  upon  war.  Perhaps 
there  is  scarce  anything  more  worthy  your  at 
tention,  than  the  revival  and  encouragement 
of  seminaries  of  learning;  and  nothing  by 
which  we  can  more  satisfactorily  express  our 
gratitude  to  the  Supreme  Being  for  his  past 
favors,  since  piety  and  virtue  are  generally 
the  offspring  of  an  enlightened  understand- 

ing." 

From  1795  to  1802,  various  measures  were 
adopted,  and  revenues  appropriated  for  this 
object.  In  1802  and  1803,  Gov.  Clinton  re- 
newedly  and  energetically  recommended  the 
establishment  of  Common  Schools,  putting 
morals  and  religion  as  their  foremost  objects. 
"  The  advantage  to  morals,  religion,  liberty, 
and  good  government,  arising  from  the  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  being  universally  ad 
mitted,  permit  me  to  recommend  this  subject 
to  your  deliberate  attention." 


OF  NEW   YORK.  203 

In  18.04,  Governor  Lewis  remarked,  with 
reference  to  the  subject  of  education,  and  the 
establishment  of  Common  Schools,  as  follows : 
"  In  a  government  resting  on  public  opinion, 
and  deriving  its  chief  support  from  the  affec 
tions  of  the  people,  RELIGION  AND  MORALITY 
cannot  be  too  sedulously  INCULCATED.  COM 
MON  SCHOOLS,  under  the  guidance  of  respect 
able  teachers,  should  be  established  in  every 
village,  and  the  indigent  be  educated  at  the 
public  expense." 

In  1810,  Governor  Tompkins  called  the  at 
tention  of  the  Legislature  to  the  subject,  in  the 
following  language :_"  I  cannot  omit  this  oc 
casion  of  inviting  your  at'ention  to  the  means 
of  instruction  for  the  rising  generation.  To 
enable  them  to  perceive  and  duly  estimate 
their  rights,  TO  INCULCATE  CORRECT  PRINCI 
PLES,  AND  HABITS  OF  MORALITY  AND  RELIGION, 
and  to  render  them  useful  citizens,  a  compe 
tent  provision  for  their  education  is  all  essen 
tial." 

In  1811,  Governor  Tompkins  again  called 
the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  this  subject, 
and  a  law  was  passed  for  appointing  five  Com- 


204       THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK. 

missioners,  to  report  a  system  for  the  organi 
zation  and  establishment  of  Common  Schools. 
The  Commissioners  were  men  well  fitted  for 
this  trust,  and  proved  faithful  to  it.  Their 
masterly  document  is  quoted  at  large  in  the 
official  history  of  the  Common  School  system, 
with  these  remarks :  "  We  cannot  deem  any 
apology  necessary  for  the  space  occupied  by 
these  extracts  from  this  admirable  report ; 
shadowing  forth  as  it  does  the  great  features 
of  that  system  of  public  instruction  subse 
quently  adopted,  and  successfully  carried  into 
execution ;  and  laying  down,  in  language  at 
once  eloquent  and  impressive,  those  funda 
mental  principles,  upon  which  alone,  any  sys 
tem  of  popular  education,  in  a  republic  like 
ours,  must  be  based." 


0f 
0f  %  Sjstem  bj  %  Slate* 


LET  us  then  see  what,  in  the  view  of  the 
founders  of  our  system,  were  some  of  those 
fundamental  principles. 

"  Perhaps,"  say  they,  "  there  never  will  be 
presented  to  the  Legislature  a  subject  of  more 
importance  than  the  establishment  of  Common 
Schools.  Education,  as  the  means  of  improv 
ing  the  moral  and  intellectual  faculties,  is, 
under  all  circumstances,  a  subject  of  the  most 
imposing  consideration.  To  rescue  man  from 
that  State  of  degradation  to  which  he  is  doom 
ed,  unless  redeemed  by  education  ;  to  unfold 
his  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  powers  ; 
and  to  fit  him  for  those  high  destinies  which 
his  Creator  has  prepared  for  him,  cannot  fail 
to  excite  the  most  ardent  sensibility  of  the 
philosopher  and  the  philanthropist." 
18 


206  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 

"  The  people  must  possess  both  intelligence 
and  virtue;  intelligence  to  perceive  what  is 
right,  and  virtue  to  do  what  is  right.  Our  re 
public,  therefore,  may  justly  be  said  to  be 
founded  on  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the 
people.  For  this  reason,  it  is  with  much  pro 
priety  that  Montesquieu  has  said,  In  a  repub 
lic,  the  whole  force  of  education  is  required." 

"  The  Commissioners  think  it  necessary  to 
present  in  the  strongest  point  of  view,  the  im 
portance  and  absolute  necessity  of  education, 
either  as  connected  with  the  cause  of  religion 
and  morality,  or  with  the  prosperity  and  ex 
istence  of  our  political  institutions.  The  ex 
pedient  devised  by  the  Legislature  is  the  es 
tablishment  of  Common  Schools  ;  which  being 
spread  throughout  the  State,  and  aided  by  its 
bounty,  will  bring  improvement  within  the 
reach  and  power  of  the  humblest  citizen.  This 
appears  to  be  the  best  plan  that  can  be  devised 
to  disseminate  KELIG-ION,  MORALITY,  AND 
LEARNING  throughout  a  whole  country." 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  view  of  these  gentle 
men,  and  of  the  legislature  %under  whom  they 
acted,  religion  as  well  as  knowledge  was  a 


THE  SYSTEM  BY  THE  STATE.  207 

legitimate  subject  of  teaching  and  dissemination 
by  the  government  through  the  public  schools. 
They  did  not  deem  the  introduction  of  relig 
ious  principles  an  intrusion  on  the  rights  of 
any  conscience. 

But  still  further,  speaking  of  the  course  of 
instruction  appropriate  and  essential  in  com 
mon  schools,  under  direction  and  patronage 
of  the  State,  the  commissioners  say,  "  In  these 
schools  should  be  taught  at  least  those  branches 
of  education  which  are  indispensably  necessary 
to  every  person  in  his  intercourse  with  the 
world,  and  to  the  performance  of  his  duty  as 
a  useful  citizen.  Beading,  writing,  arithmetic, 
and  the  principles  of  morality,  are  essential  to 
every  person,  however  humble  his  situation  in 
life.  Without  the  first,  it  is  impossible  to 
receive  those  lessons  of  morality  which  are 
inculcated  in  the  writings  of  the  learned  and 
pious ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  become  acquainted 
with  our  political  constitutions  and  laws ;  nor 
to  decide  those  great  political  questions  which 
ultimately  are  referred  to  the  intelligence  of 
the  people.  Writing  and  arithmetic  are  indis 
pensable  in  the  management  of  one's  private 


208  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 

affairs,  and  to  facilitate  one's  commerce  with 
the  world.  Morality  and  religion  are  the  foun 
dation  of  all  that  is  truly  great  and  good,  and 
are  consequently  of  primary  importance." 
The  writers  of  this  report  might  be  supposed 
to  have  come  to  their  task  fresh  from  the 
perusal  of  Washington's  Farewell  Address. 

In  regard  to  school- masters,  they  say, 
"  When  we  consider  the  tender  age  at  which 
children  are  sent  to  school;  the  length  of 
time  they  pass  under  the  direction  of  their 
teachers;  when  we  consider  that  their  little 
minds  are  to  be  diverted  from  their  natural 
propensities  to  the  artificial  acquisition  of 
knowledge ;  that  they  are  to  be  prepared  for 
the  reception  of  great  moral  and  religious 
truths,  to  be  inspired  with  a  love  of  virtue 
and  detestation  of  vice ;  we  shall  forcibly  per 
ceive  the  absolute  necessity  of  suitable  qualifi 
cations  on  the  part  of  the  master." 

Further  still,  on  the  subject  of  proper  books, 
the  commissioners  declare,  that  "much  good 
is  to  be  derived  from  a  judicious  selection  of 
books,  calculated  to  enlighten  the  understand 
ing  not  only,  but  to  improve  the  heart,  And 


THE  SYSTEM  BY  THE  STATE.  209 

as  it  is  of  incalculable  consequence  to  guard 
the  young  and  tender  mind  from  receiving 
fallacious  impressions,  the  commissioners  can 
not  omit  mentioning  this  subject  as  a  part  of 
the  weighty  trust  reposed  in  them.  Connected 
with  the  introduction  of  suitable  books,  the 
commissioners  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting 
that  some  observations  and  advice  touching 
the  reading  of  the  BIBLE  in  the  schools  might 
be  salutary.  In  order  to  render  the  sacred 
volume  productive  of  the  greatest  advantage, 
it  should  be  held  in  a  very  different  light  from 
that  of  a  common  school  book.  It  should  be 
regarded  as  a  book  intended  for  literary  im 
provement  not  merely,  but  as  inculcating 
great  and  indispensable  moral  truths  also. 
With  these  impressions,  the  commissioners  are 
induced  to  recommend  the  practice  introduced 
into  the  New  York  Free  School,  of  having 
select  chapters  read  at  the  opening  of  the 
school  in  the  morning,  and  the  like  at  the 
close  in  the  afternoon.  This  is  deemed  the 
best  mode  of  preserving  the  religious  regard 
which  is  due  to  the  sacred  writings." 

What  could  be  better  than  these  principles, 
18* 


210  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 

accepted  and  sanctioned  by  the  State  as  the 
foundation  of  a  noble  system  of  Free  Common 
School  Education  ?  In  closing  their  remarks, 
the  commissioners  affirmed  that  they  "could 
not  conclude  their  report  without  expressing 
once  more  their  deep  sense  of  the  momentous 
subject  committed  to  them.  If  we  regard  it 
as  connected  with  the  cause  of  religion  and 
morality  merely,  its  aspect  is  awfully  solemn. 
But  the  other  views  of  it  already  alluded  to 
are  sufficient  to  excite  the  keenest  solicitude  in 
the  legislative  body.  It  is  a  subject,  let  it  be 
repeated,  intimately  connected  with  the  per 
manent  prosperity  of  our  political  institutions. 
The  American  empire  is  founded  on  the  virtue 
and  intelligence  of  the  people.  .  .  .  And 
the  commissioners  cannot  but  hope  that  that 
Being  who  rules  the  universe  in  justice  and  in 
mercy,  who  rewards  virtue  and  punishes  vice, 
will  most  graciously  deign  to  smile  benignly 
on  the  humble  efforts  of  a  people  in  a  cause 
purely  his  own,  and  that  he  will  manifest  this 
pleasure  in  the  lasting  prosperity  of  our 
country." 

If  the  names  of  those  commissioners  under 


THE  SYSTEM  BY  THE  STATE.      211 

whose  direction  the  Croton  Keservoir  was 
built,  to  supply  this  city  with  pure  water,  de 
served  to  be  engraved  in  the  massive  work, 
much  more  do  the  names  of  these  commission 
ers,  at  the  foundation  of  our  system  of  Common 
Free  School  Education,  with  the  Bible  as  its 
corner  stone,  deserve  a  grateful  and  lasting 
remembrance.  They  were  Jedediah  Peck, 
John  Murray,  Jr.,  Samuel  Eussell,  Eoger 
Skinner,  and  Samuel  Macomb.  The  leading 
features  of  the  system  by  them  proposed  were 
adopted  and  passed  into  a  law  by  the  legisla 
ture  in  1812. 

From  that  time  for  many  years,  up  to  the 
administration  of  Governor  De  Witt  Clinton, 
the  system  went  on  improving,  and  becoming 
more  and  more  established  in  the  affections  of 
the  people.  Governor  Clinton,  in  his  first 
message  or  speech  at  the  opening  of  the  session 
of  1822,  dwelt  upon  the  condition  of  public 
instruction,  and  remarked  that  "the  first  duty 
of  a  State  is  to  render  its  citizens  virtuous,  by 
intellectual  instruction  and  moral  discipline, 
by  enlightening  their  minds,  purifying  their 
hearts,  and  teaching  them  their  rights  and 


212  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 

their  obligations."  Governor  Clinton  repeat 
edly  wrote  upon  this  subject,  and  insisted  on 
the  duty  of  elevating  the  standard  of  education, 
mental  and  moral.  He  suggested  the  system 
of  monitorial  schools,  and  we  believe  also, 
schools  for  the  training  of  teachers. 

In  1830,  Mr.  Flagg,  the  State  Superintend 
ent,  observed :  "  The  immense  importance  of 
elevating  the  standard  of  education  in  the 
common  schools  is  strongly  enforced  by  the 
fact,  that  to  every  ten  persons  receiving  in 
struction  in  the  higher  schools,  there  are  at 
least  five  hundred  dependent  upon  the  com 
mon  schools  for  their  education."  And  it  may 
be  added,  how  powerful  an  argument  is  this 
for  the  necessity  of  having  the  Bible  and  re 
ligious  instruction  in  these  schools,  and  the 
absurdity,  or  rather  impossibility,  of  referring 
the  children  to  other  schools  or  places  of  in 
struction  for  the  Word  of  God,  if  not  ten  chil 
dren  in  a  hundred  were  likely  ever  to  obtain 
such  advantages. 

In  1838,  the  Superintendent  for  the  first 
time  began  to  confound  the  question  of  relig 
ious  instruction  with  that  of  sectarianism. 


THE  SYSTEM  BY  THE  STATE.  213 

From  Washington  downwards,  men  of  all 
classes  had  acknowledged  the  necessity  of  re 
ligion  as  well  as  morality  and  knowledge,  nor 
had  there  ever  been  any  jealousy  against  in 
struction  on  the  subject  of  religion  as  sectarian. 
But  the  element  of  Romanism  was  now  begin 
ning  to  make  itself  felt.  Yet  still  the  Bible 
was  recommended  as  a  class-book,  and  the  Su 
perintendent  justly  remarked  that  "  there  can 
be  no  ground  to  apprehend  that  the  schools 
will  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  favoring  any 
particular  sect  or  tenet,  if  these  sacred  writ 
ings,  which  are  their  own  safest  interpreters, 
are  read  without  any  other  comment,  than 
such  as  may  be  necessary  to  explain  and  en 
force  by  familiar  illustration,  the  lessons  of 
duty  which  they  teach." 

In  1840,  the  Superintendent,  John  C.  Spen 
cer,  remarked,  that  "  no  plan  of  education  can 
now  be  considered  complete,  which  does  not 
embrace  a  full  development  of  the  intellectual 
faculties,  a  systematic  and  careful  discipline 
of  the  moral  feelings,  and  a  preparation  of  the 
pupil  for  the  social  and  political  relations 
which  he  is  destined  to  sustain  in  manhood. 


214:       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  SYSTEM. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  the  standard  of 
common  school  education  in  this  State  falls 
far  short  of  the  attainment  of  these  ob 
jects." 

Now,  it  is  obvious  that  a  systematic  and 
careful  discipline  of  the  moral  feelings  is  not 
possible,  without  a  religious  training  of  the 
conscience,  and  the  guidance  of  the  "Word  of 
God.  If  this  were  excluded  from  a  common 
school  education,  it  would  be  found  miserably 
lame  and  defective.  In  the  "  social  and  polit 
ical  relations,"  indeed,  in  every  way,  the  most 
direct  and  certain  mode  of  making  good 
citizens  is  to  educate  them  under  the  power  of 
religious  truth.  It  is  by  celestial  observations 
only,  Mr.  Coleridge  once  beautifully  remarked, 
that  terrestrial  charts  can  be  constructed.  You 
are  sure  to  make  the  young  man  a  good 
citizen  if  you  make  him  a  virtuous  man ;  you 
are  not  sure  to  make  him  a  good  citizen,  if 
you  merely  instruct  him  in  secular  knowledge. 


ranjj  0f  %  Mat  aphtst 


SOON  after  this  period  a  severe  conflict  was 
waged  between  those  who  maintained  the 
natural  and  legal  right  and  moral  necessity  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  schools,  and  those  who 
endeavored,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Eoman 
Catholic  party,  to  exclude  them.  During  the 
superintendence  of  the  lamented  Col.  Stone, 
and  of  his  successor,  Dr.  Eeese,  these  gentle 
men  labored  to  restore  the  Bible  to  its  just 
place  and  authority,  and  exposed  themselves 
to  much  political  abuse  and  obloquy  for  so 
doing. 

Previous  to  the  administration  of  Col.  Stone, 
laws  were  passed  in  1842  and  1843,  contain 
ing  the  section  forbidding  sectarian  teaching 
and  books.  Under  cover  of  these  laws,  the 


216  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 

effort  was  driven  on  to  banish  the  Bible,  as 
being  itself  a  sectarian  book,  no  statute  hav 
ing  then  been  passed  to  prevent  its  banishment, 
because  it  had  never  been  dreamed  that  the 
time  would  come  when  such  a  statute  would 
be  necessary ;  the  Scriptures  having  been  read 
daily  in  all  the  public  schools  for  forty  years, 
without  complaint  or  opposition. 

Col.  Stone  "  advised,  counselled,  recom 
mended,  and  remonstrated,  terminating  his 
official  labors  by  invoking  the  interposition  of 
the  Legislature,"  to  protect  and  preserve  the 
schools  from  having  the  Bible  turned  out  of 
them.  It  was  in  answer  to  his  eloquent  ap 
peals  that  an  amendment  to  the  School  Law 
was  enacted  in  1844,  prohibiting  the  Board  of 
Education  from  excluding  the  Holy  Scriptures 
from  any  school.  Notwithstanding  this,  the 
ward  officers  of  different  schools  still  main 
tained  the  exclusion,  and  forbade  the  teachers 
the  privilege  of  using  the  Bible.  "  Many  of 
the  teachers,"  the  Superintendent  declared, 
"  were  thus  intimidated,  from  an  apprehension 
least  they  should  lose  their  places,  which  in 
deed  was  intimated  in  some  cases,  and  dis- 


AGAINST  THE  SCEIPTUEES.  217 

tinctly  threatened  in  others.  Valuable  teach 
ers,  in  several  cases,  for  reading  the  Bible  in 
their  schools,  have  been  actually  either  dis 
missed  or  compelled  to  resign."  As  an  illus 
tration  of  the  influences  and  the  men  by  whom 
the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  was  accomplished, 
a  written  order  was  produced  by  the  teacher 
of  a  school,  in  one  of  the  wards  where  the 
Bible  was  prohibited,  which  order  was  served 
upon  him  by  the  trustees  of  the  school,  in  the 
words  and  manner  following : — 

"Sir  By  a  unanimos  vote  of  the  trustees 
Last  Meeting  all  Secterian  Books  is  Requisted 
to  Bee  Kemoved  from  the  School  as  it  is 
thaught  the  Bibl  one  it  is  Requisted  to  Bee  Ke 
moved." 

The  Superintendent  justly  remarked,  that 
"the  orthography,  capitals,  and  want  of 
punctuation,  as  well  as  the  beauties  of  the 
sentence,  exhibited  the  lofty  qualifications  of 
such  trustees  of  common  schools  to  control 
the  interests  of  popular  education."  But  if 
the  sacred  cause  and  system  of  a  common 
school  education  be  thrown  into  the  hands  of 
politicians,  to  be  arranged  with  reference  to 
19 


218  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 

votes,  to  please  this  or  that  political  party, 
nothing  better  can  be  expected.  The  history 
of  that  period  shows  the  danger  and  disaster 
inevitable  upon  such  a  course ;  but  the  efforts 
of  the  Eoman  Catholics  to  expel  the  Bible, 
divide  the  schools,  and  distribute  the  school 
funds,  signally  failed,  through  the  merciful 
overruling  providence  of  God.* 


*  A  controversy,  growing  out  of  the  same  question,  ran 
on  in  the  public  journals  between  Bishop  Hughes  and 
Mr.  Hale,  the  well-known  independent  Editor  of  the 
Journal  of  Commerce.  On  Mr.  Hale's  part,  the  contro 
versy  embodied  facts,  appeals  and  arguments,  of  such 
energy  and  power  for  the  people,  that  we  cannot  but 
present  one  passage,  of  great  pith  and  point,  directly  con 
nected  with  our  subject: 

"The  effort  of  your  priests  and  yourselves,  gentlemen," 
said  Mr.  Hale,  "  to  get  possession  of  the  money  appro 
priated  by  the  State  of  Now  York  for  the  support  of  the 
Common  Schools,  has  a  singular  appearance.  Bishop 
Hughes  says,  '  We  come  here,  denied  of  our  rights.'  Pray, 
what  are  the  rights  here,  of  a  priest  who  holds  his  com 
mission  and  his  place  by  the  will  of  a  foreign  hierarch, 
and  upon  condition  of  continued  obedience.  Such  a  man 
cannot,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  become  an  American. 
He  may  swear  allegiance,  and  kiss  the  Bible  and  the 
cross  ever  so  many  times — he  is  a,  foreigner  still.  He 
may  have  the  privilege  of  staying  here,  and  being  pro 
tected  by  our  laws ;  but  as  to  rights  for  intermeddling 
with  American  affairs,  he  has  none.  The  amount  which 
uatholies  pay  towards  the  school-money  is  exceedingly 


AGAINST  THE  SCHIPTUEES.  219 

small,  and  all  your  contributions  to  the  State,  in  every 
way,  are  greatly  overbalanced  by  the  donations  made 
back  to  you  by  our  various  public  institutions.  You  are 
almost  all  foreigners  by  birth  here,  in  your  first  genera 
tion  ;  you  profess  a  religion  subordinated  to  a  foreign 
head — a  religion  against  which  our  ancestors  entered 
their  solemn  protest — a  protest  which  their  sons  mean  to 
sustain  while  they  live,  and  hand  down  from  generation 
to  generation  while  the  country  endures.  Your  priests 
come  here  on  a  "  mission,"  as  they  profess,  and  here,  with 
some  men  of  intelligence  and  worth,  and  an  army  who 
can  neither  read  nor  write,  headed  by  these  priests,  you 
clamor  for  your  rights.  With  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
privileges  of  American  institution,  of  liberty,  religion  and 
science,  bestowed  on  your  landing  in  our  country,  you 
are  still  discontented.  Pray,  by  what  rule  should  your 
rights  be  determined  ?  Shall  it  be  by  the  measure  which 
would  be  meted  out  under  a  reverse  of  circumstances  to 
a  like  company  of  American  Protestants  in  a  Catholic 
country  ?  You  claim  the  right  especially  to  interfere 
with  the  management  of  our  public  schools.  Pray,  had 
you  any  such  right  in  the  country  of  your  birth,  where 
your  religion  adjusted  rights,  and  dealt  them  out  ?  Be 
fore  Americans  entrust  you  with  the  management  of  their 
public  schools,  they  would  like  to  see  the  result  of  your 
labors  in  the  same  way  in  Catholic  countries.  Can  you 
point  us  to  some  spot  in  Italy,  Spain,  Austria,  or  any  other 
country  under  the  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
where  the  earliest  care  of  Popery  is  to  establish  common 
schools,  in  which  all  the  children  shall  be  taught  to  read, 
and  write,  and  cipher  ?  "We  should  like  to  visit  that  Ca 
tholic  country,  where,  in  every  neighborhood,  the  district 
school-house  is  the  centre  of  interest,  and  to  see  the  Ca 
tholic  children  as  in  neat  attire  they  assemble  blithely 
every  morning.  Is  there  any  such  spot  in  all  the  domin 
ions  of  the  Pope  ?  No ;  common  schools  are  the  offspring 


220  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 

of  Protestantism.  We  can  have  them,  because  we  are 
not  under  the  dominion  of  the  Pope.  His  letter  proves 
conclusively  that  Romanism  is  the  enemy  of  Common 
Schools,  and  popular  education  in  every  form.  Americans 
will  not,  if  they  are  wise,  put  an  institution  which  they 
love  so  much  into  the  hands  of  its  enemies.  The  glory  of 
our  system  is  universal  education  ;  the  glory  of  yours  is 
universal  ignorance.  The  meridian  of  Catholic  ascend 
ency  was  the  midnight  of  our  world's  history.  While 
our  children  are  taught  the  elements  of  all  sorts  of  useful 
knowledge,  and  each  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand,  is  instruct 
ed  to  read,  and  think,  and  act  independently,  our  institu 
tions  will  be  safe ;  but  such  a  system  will  lay  Popery  in 
the  dust,  wherever  it  prevails.  The  common  people,  in 
all  Catholic  countries,  are  ignorant  of  the  rudiments  of 
education.  Those  who  come  here  can,  in  general,  sign 
their  names  only  with  a  mark.  The  persons  who  can 
neither  read  nor  write,  whose  numbers  disfigure  the 
census  returns  of  our  towns,  are  most  of  them  Catholics. 
Under  all  these  circumstances,  gentlemen,  your  claim 
that  a  part  of  our  Public  School  money  should  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  Catholic  priests  to  manage,  strikes  us  as 
exhibiting  a  wonderful  degree  of  assurance. 

Your  demand  upon  us  for  proof,  has  driven  us  to  a  more 
thorough  inquiry  into  your  doctrines  and  practices  than 
we  had  ever  made  before.  We  have  been  much  instructed 
by  the  labor.  We  believe  the  assertions  which  we  made, 
with  a  wider  and  deeper  feeling  of  disapprobation  now, 
than  when  we  made  them.  We  find  in  the  system  a  more 
daring  impiety  towards  God,  and  a  more  confident  trust 
in  the  credulity  of  men,  and  less  of  even  speciousness  of 
scriptural  support,  than  we  had  supposed.  The  examina 
tion  has  made  us  feel  more  thankful  to  the  great  men  who 
dared  to  face  your  system  in  its  strength,  and  more  thank 
ful  to  God  that  he  gave  success  to  their  efforts,  so  that  the 
chains  of  Popery  were  broken,  and  a  spirit  of  freedom  let 


AGAINST  THE  SCRIPTURES.  221 

loose  which  has  blessed  our  land,  and  will  bless  all  the 
nations. 

Your  whole  system  is  anti-American.  The  powers  of  your 
ecclesiastical  officers  are  derived  from  a  foreign  prince,  and 
dependent  on  him.  Everything  concentrates  in  him  as  the 
head  of  your  system.  By  authority  received  from  him  it 
is  that  Bishop  Dubois  shuts  up  one  American  church,  and 
maintains  a  man,  publicly  charged  by  numerous  affidavits 
with  being  often  intoxicated,  as  the  priest  of  another,  in 
defiance  of  the  will  of  the  people.  There  is  no  American 
ism  in  this.  You,  gentlemen,  while  you  own  the  supremacy 
of  the  priests  in  such  a  matter,  and  humbly  crouch  to  their 
power,  are  deficient  in  the  first  elements  of  Americans. 
To  be  an  American,  is  not  to  live  on  American  soil  only, 
but  it  is  to  be  a  freeman  in  politics  and  religion.  It  is  to 
be  free  to  read,  to  think,  to  act,  and  to  control  our  own 
affairs. 

If,  standing  as  you  do,  you  suppose  that  by  any  means 
you  can  get  possession  of  our  public  institutions,  especially 
of  our  public  schools,  or  any  part  of  them,  for  the  purpose 
of  perverting  them  from  their  public,  American  character, 
to  the  sectarian  subordination  of  Romanism,  you  are  mis 
taken.  Do  not  infer  more  than  is  meant  from  the  readi 
ness  with  which  you  are  admitted  to  all  the  benefits  of  our 
institutions.  Americans  have  no  reason  to  fear  you,  and 
no  wish  to  embarrass  you.  They  trust  in  Liberty  as  their 
shield.  They  believe  that  its  principles  are  so  thoroughly 
established  and  protected  by  a  free  press,  and  all  the  means 
of  free  discussion  among  the  people,  that  despotism  cannot 
be  introduced,  either  in  politics  or  religion,  and  made  to 
flourish  here. 

However  enslaved  the  feelings  of  persons  may  be  when 
they  come  from  the  despotisms  of  the  old  world,  and  al 
though  that  slavery  may  be  so  inwrought  that  the  sub 
ject  cannot  at  once  be  disenthralled  when  he  treads  our 
shore,  they  yet  believe  that  our  atmosphere  of  liberty 
19* 


222  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 

will  revive  the  vitality  of  manliness  within  him,  and  that 
at  least  his  children  will  be  true  Americans.  We  have 
never  thought  of  subordinating  the  moral  and  intellectual 
machinery  which  works  this  renovation,  to  the  control 
of  new  and  uninstructed  hands.  Politicians  may  be  sup 
ple  to  you,  and  if  you  will  offer  yourselves  for  sale/for  the 
boon  you  demand,  some  of  those  politicians  may  be  will 
ing  to  sell  their  birth-right  for  your  votes.  But  it  is  not 
so  with  the  people.  They  understand  something  of  the 
Anti-American  character  of  your  system,  and  they  will 
displace  any  man  who  is  found  betraying  the  public  in 
terest  to  you.  You'  and  all  other  citizens  are  at  liberty 
to  construct  schools  as  you  please,  for  yourselves.  But 
the  public  schools  must  remain  public,  subordinated  to  no 
religious  sect,  yet  unobjectionable  to  all.  They  are  not 
designed  to  teach  religion,  yet  the  Bible,  the  common 
book  of  all  sects,  they  retain,  and  will  retain,  as  God  pre 
pared  it  for  man's  use,  without  note  or  comment  of  human 
addition.  The  Bible  is  the  corner-stone  of  our  whole  fabric, 
and  that  book  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  in  the  hands  of  every 
body,  is  the  grand  principle  of  Americanism.  You  must 
conform  to  this  principle  if  you  would  be  Americans.  If  you 
find  the  Bible  a  sectarian  book,  favorable  to  other  sects, 
and  dangerous  to  your's,  the  reason  probably  is,  that  your 
opinions  are  less  in  accordance  with  the  Bible  than  theirs. 
Let  us  invite  you  therefore,  gentlemen,  to  adopt  the 
American  plan  of  liberty :  to  discard  the  timorous  fear  of 
error,  and  trust  to  the  mighty  power  of  truth.  Cast  off, 
for  yourselves,  and  your  people,  the  slavery  of  priests  and 
councils,  and  invite  every  man  to  go  to  the  fountains  of 
truth,  and  taste  and  judge  for  himself.  Unite  with  us  in 
maintaining  our  public  schools  and  all  our  other  public 
institutions  on  a  public  basis.  If  your  system  should  be 
overthrown  by  the  free  energies  of  truth,  you  will  have, 
as  Americans,  and  as  men,  as  much  occasion  to  rejoice  in 


AGAINST  THE  SCRIPTURES.  223 

the  triumph,  as  any  of  your  fellow-citizens,  If,  on  the 
same  free  plan,  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  can  supplant 
Protestantism,  so  be  it,  we  say,  Let  truth  prevail.  ^  It  is 
that  alone  which'  can  sustain  useful  institutions  in  this 
world,  and  prepare  us  for  the  world  of  realities  to  which 
we  hasten." 


0f  %  Jfm 


RENEWAL  OF  THE  WAR  AGAINST  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

Lsr  1849,  the  act  was  passed  establishing 
free  schools  throughout  the  State  —  our  present 
free  school  system  —  determined  by  popular 
vote,  the  whole  number  of  votes  cast  being 
249,872,  and  the  majority  in  favor  of  the 
law,  157,921.  On  the  question  for  the  repeal 
of  this  system,  there  were  cast  393,654  votes, 
184,398  for  the  repeal,  and  209,346  against  it; 
leaving  a  majority  of  25,038  against  repealing 
it.  An  annual  tax  of  800,000  dollars  for  the 
support  of  free  schools,  is  provided  for  in  this 
system,  in  addition  to  which  there  is  a  school 
fund  of  more  than  five  million  and  four  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars,  so  that  the  whole  an 
nual  amount  applicable  to  the  support  of  free 
schools  is  one  million  and  one  hundred  thou- 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  225 

sand  dollars.  The  responsibility  devolving 
upon  the  State  Superintendent  at  the  head  of 
this  vast  system  is  immense,  and  the  report 
of  Mr.  Morgan  in  1851,  was  an  admirable  de 
velopment  of  the  grand  and  comprehensive 
character,  moral  and  intellectual,  which  this 
system  should  possess.  The  history  of  the 
system,  prepared  under  his  direction,  remarks 
that  "  there  is  no  institution  within  the  range 
of  civilization,  upon  which  so  much  for  good 
or  for  evil  depends,  upon  which  hang  so  many 
and  such  important  issues  to  the  future  well- 
being  of  individuals  and  communities,  as  the 
common  district  school.  It  is  through  that 
alembic  that  the  lessons  of  the  nursery  and 
the  family  fire-side,  the  earliest  instructions  in 
pure  morality,  and  the  precepts  and  examples 
of  the  social  circle  are  distilled ;  and  from  it 
those  lessons  are  destined  to  assume  that  tinge 
and  hue  which  are  permanently  to  be  incor 
porated  into  the  character  and  the  life."  The 
grandest  and  best  results  from  this  school  sys 
tem  it  is  declared  can  be  anticipated,  but  only 
11  by  an  infusion  into  its  entire  course  of  dis 
cipline  and  instruction  of  that  high  moral  cul- 


226  ESTABLISHMENT  OF 

ture,  which  alone  can  adequately  realize  the 
idea  of  sound  education."  "The  means  of 
elementary  instruction  demand  and  will  repay 
the  consecration  of  the  highest  intellectual  and 
moral  energies,  the  most  comprehensive  benev 
olence,  and  the  best  affections  of  our  common 
nature." 

From  the  preceding  sketch  of  this  system, 
taken  from  the  public  documents,  it  will  be 
perceived  that  while  the  greatest  care  has  been 
justly  taken  to  exclude  sectarianism,  its  found 
ers  and  promoters  were  equally  careful  and 
determined  that  the  Bible  and  religion  should 
not  be  excluded ;  they  intended  and  provided 
that  moral  and  religious  instruction  should 
possess  a  fundamental  place  and  influence. 
With  such  a  purpose,  they  commended  the 
enterprise  to  God,  and  to  the  religious  convic 
tions  of  the  country. 

Accordingly,  provision  was  early  made  by 
law,  giving  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  a 
religious  influence  by  the  teachers,  }^et  not 
sectarian;  and  under  Mr.  Spencer's  adminis 
tration  it  was  decided,  and  the  enactment  is 
part  of  the  system,  that  "  Teachers  may  open 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  227 

and  close  their  schools  with  prayer,  and  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  accompanied  with 
suitable  remarks,  taking  care  to  avoid  all  dis 
cussion  of  controverted  points,  or  sectarian 
dogmas."* 

And  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  decision,  and  of 
usage  hitherto,  it  is  now  directly  asserted  that 
to  give  this  permission  to  the  teachers  will  be 
to  trample  upon  conscience,  and  open  the  door 
to  sectarianism,  and  take  away  the  rights  of 
those  who  do  not  believe  in  the  importance 
and  efficacy  of  prayer!     It  is   asserted  that 
even   though  the   reading  of  the  Scriptures 
were  permitted,  yet,  to  say  one  word  as  to 
their  meaning,  to  explain,  illustrate,  or  enforce 
their  lessons,  is  an  intrusion  on  the  universal 
conscience,  and  especially  on  the  Eomish  con 
science,  and  ought  not  to  be  suffered.     And 
by  various  influences  and  edicts,  personal  and 
oral,  and  contrary  to  the  public  enactments, 
the  Bible  itself  has  in  some  cases  been  ex 
cluded,  and  the  endeavor  has  been  made,  and 
in  some  instances  successfully,  to  introduce  a 

*  Randall's   Common  School  System  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  p.  273, 


228  ESTABLISHMENT   OF 

secret,  silent,  inquisitorial  common  law  against 
all  prayer  and  religious  instruction,  and  to 
produce  the  impression  that  anything  border 
ing  on  religious  truth  will  endanger  the  popu 
larity  of  the  teachers  and  the  schools,  expose 
them  to  the  charge  of  sectarianism,  and  be  re 
garded  with  suspicion  and  disfavor  by  the  ap 
pointed  school  authorities.  In  some  cases  the 
teachers  have  been  publicly  threatened  that  if 
they  do  not  drop  those  practices,  nay,  if  they 
even  persist  in  using  the  Lord's  prayer,  they 
shall  be  turned  out  of  their  places.  Such 
threats  have  been  made  to  female  teachers, 
even  in  the  presence  of  the  children,  and  no 
redress  has  been  granted  for  the  insult. 

Whence  has  sprung  so  rapid  and  alarming 
a  change,  in  subversion  or  utter  disregard  and 
violation,  of  some  of  the  best  and  earliest 
established  fixtures  of  the  public  school  sys 
tem?  Whence  has  arisen  this  restraint,  this 
fear,  this  ban  upon  the  Bible  and  religion, 
notwithstanding  the  known  fact  that  the  use 
of  the  Bible  and  religious  instruction  has  been 
the  wont  of  the  schools  from  the  beginning, 
to  exclude  it  now,  on  pretence  of  its  being 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  229 

sectarian,  would  be  a  departure  from  the  pro 
vision  and  recommendation  of  the  fathers  and 
framers  of  the  school  system,  and  from  the 
custom  and  law  hitherto  ? 

It  is  impossible,  and  perhaps  it  would  be 
useless,  in  this  place,  to  go  into  a  history  of 
the  introduction  of  the  Eomish  and  political 
element  into  the  management  of  a  system  of 
public  education,  that  ought  to  be  so  high  and 
sacred  above  all  sectarian  and  political  in 
trigue.  "We  will  not  enter  on  the  detail  of  the 
conflicts  fought,  the  schemes  presented,  the 
influences  used,  the  conferences  of  the  school 
authorities  with  Bishop  Hughes,  the  submis 
sion  to  his  inspection  of  all  the  school  litera 
ture  for  consideration,  the  disgraceful  black 
ening  of  the  school  books  by  Eomish  expur 
gation,  and  the  partial  and  temporary  giving 
up  of  the  school  system  to  the  dictation  of 
Komish  priests.  We  say  partial  and  temporary ; 
for  such  things,  we  trust  in  God,  cannot  be 
repeated ;  but  yet  a  most  disastrous  political 
taint  and  sectarian  influence  have  been  per 
petuated  ;  and  whereas  the  most  explicit  pro 
visions  are  made  in  the  school  laws  against 
20 


230  ESTABLISHMENT   OF 

sectarianism,  its  very  worst  form  and  power 
has  been  admitted,  sectarianism  against  the 
"Word  of  God  itself,  and  is  now  playing  its 
game,  in  some  cases  encouraged  by  the  very 
school  authorities,  who  are  bound  by  law  to 
have  resisted  it. 

-  The  prejudice  against  the  Bible  and  religion, 
in  our  schools,  on  the  part  of  Eomanism,  has 
been  taken  up,  and  wrought  into  an  argument, 
and  presented  and  urged  in  many  ways,  even 
with  labored  ridicule  of  the  use  of  the  Scrip 
tures,  and  even  by  the  very  officers  of  that 
school  system,  the  excellence  and  success  of 
which  were  declared,  by  its  founders  and  our 
fathers,  to  be  indissolubly  connected  with,  and 
vitally  dependent  upon,  the  Bible  and  religious 
truth !  And  the  appeal  to  men's  prejudices, 
and  to  their  dread  of  ecclesiastical  domination, 
has  been  artfully  made,  for  the  exclusion  of 
the  Bible  and  prayer,  on  the  ground  that  any 
thing  positively  religious  in  the  schools  would 
be  "  the  first  step,  and  a  decided  one,  towards 
placing  them  under  ecclesiastical  guardianship 
and  supremacy."  And  yet  this  very  appeal, 
with  all  the  sophistry  of  the  demagogue,  is 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.      231 

made  at  the  instigation  of  a  sect,  and  for  the 
very  purpose  of  having  the  conscientious 
BIGHT  of  all  other  sects  to  the  Bible  cut  down, 
trampled  on,  destroyed,  at  the  will  of  that  one 
despotic  sect  demanding  the  exclusion  of  the 
Bible,  and  demanding  it  on  the  express 

orounds  of  their  own  ecclesiastical  prejudices 

§ 

and  canons!  And  the  very  first  complaint 
against  the  Bible  has  come  from  that  sect,  and 

O 

the  very  first  occasion  of  the  appearance  of 
sectarianism  in  the  schools,  from  their  foun 
dation,  has  been  the  intrusion  of  the  sectarian 
ism  of  that  one  sect  against  the  Bible.  The 
complaint  has  never  even  been  made,  from 
any  quarter  whatever,  that  sectarian  tonets 
have  been  taught  in  any  of  the  schools,  but 
the  complaint,  the  effort,  and  the  enmity,  are 
against  the  Bible  and  religion  itself  in  the 
schools,  and  men  are  not  found  wanting  to 
join  with  the  sect  of  the  Eomanists  in  the  sec 
tarian  cry. 

Now,  in  point  of  fact,  the  perfect  freedom 
of  the  Bible  and  its  religious  lessons,  uni 
versally,  for  all,  without  any  distinction  of 
sect  whatever,  in  the  schools,  is  the  only  com- 


232  ESTABLISHMENT   OF 

plete  security  for  them  against  "ecclesiastical 
guardianship  and  supremacy."      But  the  ex 
clusion  of  the   Bible,   the  imprisonment  and 
excommunication  of  its  lessons,  would  be  the 
complete  and  absolute  triumph  and  authority 
of  that  form  of  ecclesiastical  guardianship  and 
supremacy,  which  asserts  its  superiority  to  the 
Bible,  and  bases  its  power,  its  despotism,  on 
the  banishment  of  the  Bible  from  the  use  and 
knowledge   of    the    people.      And    yet,    the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  New 
York,  no  longer  ago  than  last  August,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  American  Educational  Conven 
tion,  denounced  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  and 
all  religious  instruction,  and  even  the  use  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,   as    sectarian,    oppressive, 
and  even  ridiculous  and  irrational.     He  has 
even  asserted  that   "the  State  has  no  means 
of  ascertaining  the  true  religion."     "  The  read 
ing  of  the  Bible  in  school,"   said  he,  "  and  the 
repeating  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  is  ritualistic 
and  not  educational.     It  is  not  for  improve 
ment  in  secular  learning  nor  in  sacred  learn 
ing."     He  puts  it  on  the  same  footing  with  the 
reading  from  the  Bomish  Missal,  or  the  repe- 


THE  FEEE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  233 

tition  of  the  name  of  the  Yirgin  Mary  as  the 
Holy  Mother  of  God ;  and  he  argues  that  if 
we  would  not  be  willing  to  have  the  latter  in 
the  schools,  we  have  no  more  right  to  the 
former,  no  more  right  to  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer  than  the  Eomish  Missal.  The  state 
ment  of  such  sentiments  is  enough  ;  they  do 
not  need  to  be  refuted.  What  would  Wash 
ington  have  said  to  such  assertions?  They 
cannot  but  fill  every  sound  and  Christian 
mind  with  indignation. 

But  we  are  compelled  to  ask,  What  does 
this  gentleman  mean  ?  Is  he  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  history  and  provisions  of  the  school 
system  ?  And  when  he  avers  that  religious 
instruction  in  the  schools  would  be  "'  the  first 
step  towards  placing  them  under  ecclesiastical 
guardianship  and  supremacy,"  has  he  forgot 
ten  that  the  very  founders  and  framers  of  the 
school  system  did  themselves,  and  the  legisla 
ture  at  their  suggestion,  provide  a  place  for 
such  instruction,  and  for  the  Bible,  in  the 
schools,  and  so  took  that  first  step  ?  Is  he 
ready  to  denounce  such  men  as  Governor 
Clinton,  Governor  Lewis,  Governor  Tomp- 
20* 


284  ESTABLISHMENT  OF 

kins,  and  the  illustrious  Commissioners,  whose 
Keport  stands  sanctioned  by  law  and  public 
approbation,  as  religious  sectarians,  and  the 
authors  of  a  system  of  "  sectarian  propagand- 
ism"  ?  Would  be  the  first  step  !  And  yet,  it 
has  been  the  custom  and  law  in  our  school  sys 
tem,  ever  since  we  came  out  from  the  war  of 
the  Eevolution  !  And  the  very  first  step,  and 
a  daring  step  it  is,  too,  towards  an  ecclesiastic 
al  despotism  in  our  Common  Schools,  is  this 
curse  and  excommunication  upon  the  Scrip 
tures  and  religious  instruction,  as  sectarian,  at 
the  outcry  of  the  Priests  and  politicians  of  a 
religious  hierarchy.  And  this  is  a  deliberate 
argument,  (if  such  incongruous  and  contra 
dictory  assertions  can  be  called  argument,) 
presented  by  the.  President  of  the  Board  of 
Education  in  New  York,  to  an  American  Ed 
ucational  Convention  in  Pittsburgh!  And 
although  the  author  must  be  perfectly  well 
aware  that  never  in  any  case,  has  any -creed 
been  introduced  or  sanctioned  in  the  public 
schools,  yet  he  artfully  joins  the  reading  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  use  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
with  the  mention  of  the  Catechism,  and  the 


THE  FREE  -SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  235 

repetition  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Ten 
Commandments  ;  and  as  if  there  could  be  no 
such  thing  as  religion  in  our  schools  without 
sectarianism,  denounces  the  whole  as  offensive, 
and  demands  the  entire  divorce  of  secular 
learning  from  religion,  which  he  argues  should 
be  restricted  to  the  Sabbath  Schools. 

That  it  may  be  seen  that  nothing  is  exag 
gerated,  we  present  the  following  extract  from 
the  address  by  E.  C.  Benedict,  Esq.,  President 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  New  York, 
delivered  before  the  American  Educational 
Convention  in  Pittsburgh,  August  11,  1853. 
The  despotic  style  in  which  Mr.  Benedict 
refers  to  the  conscientious  "few,"  who  might 
complain  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible,  is  to 
foe  noted.  He  assumes  that  the  right  way  of 
education  would  be  to  exclude  the  Bible  and 
religious  instruction,  and  then  says,  in  effect, 
that  if  we  take  that  way,  we  can  afford  to 
despise  and  disregard  the  complainants  against 
it,  because  of  their  weakness  I  Not  an  intimation 
is  breathed,  or  hinted  at,  that  those  who  demand 
the  continuance  of  the  Bible  in  our  public 
schools,  have  any  conscience,  or  any  rights  in 


236  ESTABLISHMENT   OF 

the  matter;  but  they  can  be  despised  and 
trampled  on,  because  they  are  few  and  weak  1 
"  We  can  do  right- — we  can  do  what  ought 
to  satisfy  all,  and  the  unfounded  complaints 
of  a  few  will  be  but  the  expression  of  their 
weakness.  What  should  be  our  rational  rule 
of  conduct?  Whenever  we  can  find  a  few 
children  together  shall  we  compel  them  to  lay 
aside  their  occupation  for  the  time  and  read 
the  Bible,  or  say  their  prayers,  or  perform  some 
other  religious  duty  ?  Will  it  be  sure  to  make 
them  better?  Will  it  be  sure  to  give  them 
religious  instruction — to  require  it  at  the 
dancing-school,  the  riding-school,  the  music- 
school,  the  visiting-party,  and  the  play-ground 
— shall  studies,  and  sports,  and  plays,  and 
prayers,  and  Bible,  and  catechism,  be  all  placed 
on  the  same  level  ?  Shall  we  insist  that  secular 
learning  cannot  be  well  taught  unless  it  is 
mixed  with  sacred  ?  Shall  algebra  and  geom 
etry  be  always  interspersed  with  religion  instead 
of  quod  erat  demonstrandum.  Shall  we  say 
selah  and  amen?  Shall  we  bow  at  the  sign 
plus?  Can  we  not  learn  the  multiplication 
table  without  saying  grace  over  it?  So  of 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  237 

religious  instruction,  will  it  be  improved  by  a 
mixture  of  profane  learning  ?  Shall  the  child 
be  taught  to  mix  his  spelling  lessons  with  his 
prayers,  and  his  table-book  with  his  catechism  ? 
If  there  were  any  necessary  relation  between 
religious  and  secular  instruction,  which  re 
quired  that  they  should  be  kept  together,  the 
subject  would  have  another  aspect.  But  no 
one  has  ever  maintained  that  the  religious 
teacher,  the  minister  of  religion  and  the  office 
bearers  in  the  church,  should  mix  secular  in 
struction  with  their  more  solemn  and  sacred 
inculcations.  I  should  be  almost  charged  with 
profanity,  if  I  should  attempt  to  exhibit  the 
sacrilegious  folly  of  mixing  these  earthly 
alloys  with  the  precious  and  virgin  gold  of 
divine  truth ;  if  I  should  exhibit  the  preacher 
as  pointing  to  the  grammatical  construction, 
the  rhetorical  finish,  the  oratorical  display  of 
his  discourses  as  a  necessary  part  of  his  teach 
ing  in  the  sacred  desk ;  if  I  should  show  you 
the  ritual  of  the  church  prescribing  mathemat 
ics  and  metaphysics  for  fast  days,  and  Belle 
Lettres  for  festivals,  and  subjecting  the  mys 
terious  and  life-giving  elements  of  the  holy 


238  ESTABLISHMENT   OF 

eucharist  to  the  analysis  of  a  chemical  lecture. 
No,  no,  these  sacred  matters  are  set  apart; 
they  are  themselves  alone ;  they  are  by  divine 
appointment  intrusted  to  appropriate  keeping, 
and  let  us  beware  that  we  are  not  struck  down, 
if  by  extending  our  profane  aid  to  the  ark  of 
God,  we  doubt  the  sufficiency  of  the  divine 
protection. 

"Now,  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  the  repeat 
ing  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  school,  is 
ritualistic  and  not  educational.  It  is  not  for 
improvement  in  secular  learning,  nor  in  sacred 
learning.  It  is  intended  merely  as  a  religious 
ceremony,  and,  if  it  give  offence,  is  it  not  an 
unnecessary  offence  ?  What  if  we  say  no  one 
has  a  right  to  be  offended,  still  we  have  no 
right  to  offend  them,  and  deprive  them  of  an 
inestimable  blessing  by  mixing  with  it  what  to 
them  is  not  only  unpleasant  and  repulsive, 
but,  in  their  opinion,  unwholesome.  Turn  the 
tables — substitute  for  the  reading  of  the  Scrip 
tures  at  the  opening  of  the  schools  the  simplest 
and  least  offensive  of  the  religious  ceremonies 
of  the  Koman  Catholic  Church — reading  from 


THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  239 

the  missal  some  portions  of  it  to  which  in 
itself  there  would  be  no  objection ;  insist  that 
the  school  shall  bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus; 
shall  always  speak  of  the  Virgin  Mary  as  the 
Blessed  Yirgin,  or  the  Holy  Mother  of  God, 
and  see  if  all  of  us  would  be  willing  to  send 
our  children  there  day  by  day.  See  if  the 
pulpits  and  the  ecclesiastical  conventions 
throughout  the  land  would  not  re-echo  the 
word  of  alarm ;  and  why  should  we  compel 
the  Jews,  who  are  numerous  in  our  cities,  to 
listen  to  the  ISTew  Testament;  to  repeat  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  or  the  Apostles'  Creed,  or  be 
taught  the  mysteries  of  redemption,  or  leave 
the  schools?" 

Mr.  Benedict  speaks  of  "overthrowing  the 
great  question  of  Common  Schools  by  a  mere 
form  or  ceremony."  What  is  meant  by  over 
throwing  a  question,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
say ;  what  is  meant  by  the  declaration,  "  That 
the  reading  of  the  Bible  is  not  for  improve 
ment,  but  is  a  mere  ceremony,  and  a  profane 
aid  to  the  ark  of  God,"  may  be  more  clear; 
and  the  assertion,  "  That  there  is  not  only  no 
necessary  relation  between  religious  and  seen- 


240  THE  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

lar  instruction,  but  that  the  mingling  of  them 
is  sacrilegious  folly,"  seems  an  extreme  of  com 
bined  shallowness  and  hardihood,  upon  which 
no  man  in  his  senses  could  have  stumbled. 
Yet  here,  in  this  production,  it  is  deliberately 
presented  to  a  Christian  community !  Let 
this  address  be  placed  alongside  the  Eeport 
of  the  State  Commissioners  above  quoted, 
and  the  various  provisions,  recommendations, 
and  laws  in  the  School  System,  for  fifty 
years;  and  also  let  it  be  compared  with 
the  sentiments  and  recommendations  of  Wash 
ington,  Story,  Webster,  Clinton,  Tompkins, 
Lewis,  Chancellor  Kent,  and  other  eminent 
civil  as  well  as  religious  writers  on  this  subject 
still  living.  Especially  let  us  now  set  it  in 
comparison  and  contrast  with  a  portion  of  Mr. 
Webster's  celebrated  argument,  of  such  in 
comparable  beauty  and  power,  in  «regard  to  the 
inevitable  infidel  tendency  of  any  scheme  of 
education  that  excludes  religion,  and  the  ne 
cessity  of  constantly  mingling,  with  all  other 
knowledge,  instruction  in  religious  truth. 


pm*nt    0f    $&tml 

AOAINST  THE  PLAN  OF  EDUCATION  WITHOUT  THE  BIBLE.* 


"THE  children,"  said  Mr.  Webster,  "are 
taken  before  they  know  the  alphabet.  They 
are  kept  till  the  period  of  early  manhood,  and 
then  sent  out  into  the  world  to  enter  upon  its 
business  and  affairs.  By  this  time  the  charac 
ter  will  have  been  stamped.  For  if  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  Bible,  if  there  is  any  truth  in 
those  oracles  which  soar  above  all  human  au 
thority,  or  if  anything  be  established  as  a  gen 
eral  fact  by  the  experience  of  mankind,  in  this 
first  third  of  human  life  the  character  is 
formed.  And  what  sort  of  a  character  is 
likely  to  be  made  by  this  process,  this  experi 
mental  system  of  instruction  ?  What  is  likely 
to  be  the  effect  of  this  system  on  the  minds 
of  these  children,  thus  left  solely  to  its  perni 
cious  influence,  with  no  one  to  care  for  their 

*  Before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
case  of  Girard. 


24:2         ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

spiritual  welfare  in  this  world  or  the  next? 
They  are  to  be  left  entirely  to  the  tender  mer 
cies  of  those  who  will  try  upon  them  this  ex 
periment  of  moral  philosophy  or  philosophical 
morality.  Morality  without  sentiment ;  benev 
olence  towards  man,  without  a  sense  of  respon 
sibility  towards  God;  the  duties  of  this  life 
performed  without  any  reference  to  the  life 
which  is  to  come ;  such  is  this  theory  of  useful 
education. 

"  The  scheme  is  derogatory  to  Christianity, 
because  it  rejects  Christianity  from  the  educa 
tion  of  youth,  by  rejecting  its  teachers,  by  re 
jecting  the  ordinary  agencies  of  instilling  the 
Christian  religion  into  the  minds  of  the  young. 
It  is  derogatory,  because  there  is  a  positive 
rejection  of  Christianity ;  because  it  rejects  the 
ordinary  means  and  agencies  of  Christianity. 

"  There  is  nothing  original  in  this  plan.  It 
has  its  origin  in  a  deistical  source,  but  not 
from  the  highest  school  of  infidelity.  It  is  all 
idle,  it  is  a  mockery,  and  an  insult  to  common 
sense,  to  maintain  that  a  school  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  youth,  from  which  Christian  instruction 
by  Christian  teachers  is  sedulously  and  vigor- 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          243 

ouslj  shut  out,  is  not  deistical  and  infidel  both, 
in  its  purpose  and  in  its  tendency.  I  insist, 
therefore,  that  this  plan  of  education  is,  in  this 
respect,  derogatory  to  Christianity,  in  opposi 
tion  to  it,  and  calculated  either  to  subvert  01 
to  supersede  it. 

"  In  the  next  place,  this  scheme  of  education 
is  derogatory  to  Christianity,  because  it  pro 
ceeds  upon  the  presumption  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  not  the  only  true  foundation,  or  any 
necessary  foundation  of  morals.  The  ground 
taken  is,  that  religion  is  not  necessary  to  mo 
rality  ;  that  benevolence  may  be  insured  by 
habit,  and  that  all  the  virtues  may  flourish, 
and  be  safely  left  to  the  chance  of  flourishing, 
without  touching  the  waters  of  the  living 
spring  of  religious  responsibility.  With  him 
who  thinks  thus,  what  can  be  the  value  of  the 
Christian  revelation?  So  the  Christian  world 
has  not  thought ;  for  by  that  Christian  world, 
throughout  its  broadest  extent,  it  has  been  and 
is,  held  as  a  fundamental  truth,  that  religion  is 
the  only  solid  basis  of  morals,  and  that  moral 
instruction,  not  resting  on  this  basis,  is  only  a 
building  upon  sand.  And  at  what  age  of  the 


244  ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Christian  era  "have  those  who  professed  to  teach 
the  Christian  religion,  or  to  believe  in  its  au 
thority  and  importance,  not  insisted  on  the 
absolute  necessity  of  inculcating  its  principles 
and  its  precepts  upon  the  minds  of  the  young  ? 
In  what  age,  and  by  what  sect,  where,  when, 
by  whom,  has  religious  truth  been  excluded 
from  the  education  of  youth  ?  Nowhere ; 
never.  Everywhere,  and  at  all  times,  it  has 
been  and  is,  regarded  as  essential.  It  is  of  the 
essence,  the  vitality,  of  useful  instruction." 

Mr.  "Webster  then  developed  the  Divine  au 
thority  and  teaching  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes 
taments  on  this  subject,  with  such  dignity, 
beauty,  and  deep  feeling,  that  it  would  be  dif 
ficult  to  find,  in  all  the  records  of  forensic 
eloquence,  anything  of  greater  mastery  and 
power.  The  extracts  which  we  here  reprint, 
need  no  apology  for  their  length,  because  they 
commend  themselves  to  every  mind  as  the 
most  apt  and  admirable  answer  that  could  be 
made  to  the  sophistry  which  would  represent 
religion  and  religious  instruction  in  our  com 
mon  schools,  as  a  sectarian  thing. 

"My  learned  friend,"  said  Mr.   Webster, 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         245 

"  has  referred  with  propriety  to  one  of  the 
commandments  of  the  Decalogue;  but  there 
is  another,  a  first  commandment,  and  that  is  a 
precept  of  religion,  and  it  is  in  subordination 
to  this  that  the  moral  precepts  of  the  Deca 
logue  are  proclaimed.  This  first  great  com 
mandment  teaches  man  that  there  is  one,  and 
only  one,  great  First  Cause,  one,  and  only  one, 
proper  object  of  human  worship.  This  is  the 
great,  the  ever  fresh,  the  overflowing  fountain 
of  all  revealed  truth ;  without  it,  human  life  is  a 
desert,  of  no  known  termination  on  any  side, 
but  shut  in  on  all  sides  by  a  dark  and  impene 
trable  horizon.  Without  the  light  of  this 
truth,  man  knows  nothing  of  his  origin,  and 
nothing  of  his  end.  And  when  the  Decalogue 
was  delivered  to  the  Jews,  with  this  great  an 
nouncement  and  command  at  its  head,  what 
said  the  inspired  law-giver  ?  that  it  should  be 
kept  from  children  ?  that  it  should  be  reserved 
as  a  communication  fit  only  for  mature  age  ? 
Far,  far  otherwise.  '  And  these  words,  which 
I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thy  heart. 

AND    THOU  SHALT    TEACH   THEM    DILIGENTLY 

UNTO  THY  CHILDEEN  ;  and  shalt  talk  of  them 
21* 


246        AKG-UMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when 
thou  walkest  by  the  way,  when  thou  liest 
down,  and  when  thou  risest  up.7 

"  There  is  an  authority  still  more  imposing 
and  awful.  When  little  children  were  brought 
into  the  presence  of  the  Son  of  God,  his  dis 
ciples  proposed  to  send  them  away;  but  he 
said,  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me. 
Unto  me  •  he  did  not  send  them  first  for  les 
sons  in  morals  to  the  schools  of  the  Pharisees 
or  to  the  unbelieving  Saclducees,  nor  to  read 
the  precepts  and  lessons  phylacteried  on  the 
garments  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood;  he  said 
nothing  of  different  creeds  or  clashing  doc 
trines  ;  but  he  opened  at  once  to  the  }^outhful 
mind  the  everlasting  fountain  of  living  waters, 
the  only  source  of  eternal  truths  :  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me.  And  that  injunc 
tion  is  of  perpetual  obligation.  It  addresses 
itself  to  day  with  the  same  earnestness  and  the 
same  authority  which  attended  its  first  utter 
ance  to  the  Christian  world.  It  is  of  force 
everywhere,  and  at  all  times.  It  extends  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  it  will  reach  to  the  end 
of  time,  always  and  everywhere  sounding  in 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTEB.         247 

the  ears  of  men,  with  an  emphasis  which  no 
repetition  can  weaken,  and  with  an  authority 
which  nothing  can  supersede,  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me. 

"  Before  man  knows  his  origin  and  destiny, 
he  knows  that  he  is  to  die.  Then  comes  that 
most  urgent  and  solemn  demand  for  light  that 
ever  proceeded,  or  can  proceed,  from  the  pro 
found  and  anxious  broodings  of  the  human 
soul.  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  And 
that  question,  nothing  but  God,  and  the  relig 
ion  of  God,  can  solve.  Eeligion  does  solve  it, 
and  teaches  every  man  that  he  is  to  live  again, 
and  that  the  duties  of  this  life  have  reference 
to  the  life  which  is  to  come.  And  hence, 
since  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  it  has 
been  the  duty  as  it  has  been  the  effort  of  the 
great  and  good,  to  sanctify  human  knowledge, 
to  bring  it  to  the  fount,  and  to  baptize  learning 
into  Christianity  ;  to  gather  up  all  its  produc 
tions,  its  earliest  and  its  latest,  its  blossoms  and 
its  fruits,  and  lay  them  all  upon  the  altar  of 
religion  and  virtue." 

Mr.  Webster  then  again  exposes,  as  nothing 
better  than  infidelity,  the  pretence  that  relig- 


248        ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

ious  instruction  is  sectarianism,  and  the  policy 
of  banishing  it  on  that  ground.  He  takes  up 
the  objection  commonly  urged  by  the  opponent 
of  religion,  as  follows : 

"  There  is  such  a  multitude  of  sects,  and  such 
diversity  of  opinion,  that  he  will  exclude  all 
religion  !  That  is  the  objection  urged  by  all 
the  lower  and  more  vulgar  schools  of  infidelity 
throughout  the  world.  In  all  these  schools, 
called  schools  of  Rationalism  in  Germany, 
Socialism  in  England,  and  by  various  other 
names  in  various  countries  which  they  infest, 
this  is  the  universal  cant.  The  first  step  of 
all  these  philosophical  moralists  and  regenera 
tors  of  the  human  race  is  to  attack  the  agency 
through  which  religion  and  Christianity  are 
administered  to  man.  But  in  this  there  is  no 
thing  new  or  original.  We  find  the  same  mode 
of  attack  and  remark  in  Paine's  Age  of  Rea 
son. 

"  But  this  objection  to  the  multitude  and  dif 
ferences  of  sects  is  but  the  old  story,  the  old 
infidel  argument.  It  is  notorious  that  there 
are  certain  great  religious  truths  which  are  ad 
mitted  and  believed  by  all  Christians.  Ail 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.    249 

believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God.  All  be 
lieve  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  All  be 
lieve  in  the  responsibility,  in  another  world, 
for  our  conduct  in  this.  All  believe  in  the 
divine  authority  of  the  New  Testament.  And 
cannot  all  these  great  truths  be  taught  to  chil 
dren,  without  thur  minds  being  perplexed  with 
clashing  doctrines  and  sectarian  controversies  ? 
Most  certainly  they  can." 

Mr.  Webster  then  takes  the  supposition  of 
a  youth  educated,  say  from  six  to  eighteen,  in 
secular « learning  merely,  without  religious 
teaching,  which  is  the  very  proposition  offered 
to  a  Christian  community,  in  the  demand  that 
from  our  common  schools  the  Bible  and  all 
religious  instruction  shall  be  banished,  and 
carries  such  a  youth  into  the  business  of  life, 
and  shows  what  would  be  the  consequence  of 
such  a  scheme,  in  the  subversion  of  all  moral 
ity,  Christianity,  and  government. 

"  The  Christian  religion,  its  general  principles, 
must  ever  be  regarded  among  us  as  the  foun 
dation  of  civil  society.  But  this  system,  in  its 
tendencies  and  effects,  is  opposed  to  all  relig 
ions  of  every  kind.  Keligious  tenets,  I  take 


250        ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

it,  and  I  suppose  it  will  be  generally  conceded, 
mean  religious  opinions ;  and  if  a  youth  has 
arrived  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  has  no 
religious  tenets,  it  is  very  plain  that  he  has  no 
religion.  We  will  suppose  the  case  of  a  youth 
of  eighteen,  who  has  just  left  school,  and  has 
gone  through  an  education  of  philosophical 
morality.  He  comes  then  into  the  world  to 
choose  his  religious  tenets.  The  next  day, 
perhaps,  after  leaving  school,  he  comes  into  a 
court  of  law,  to  give  testimony  as  a  witness. 
Sir,  I  protest  that  by  such  a  system  iie  would 
be  disfranchised.  He  is  asked,  '  What  is  your 
religion?'  His  reply  is,  '0,  I  have  not  yet 
chosen  any ;  I  am  going  to  look  round,  and 
see  which  suits  me  best.'  He  is  asked,  '  Are 
you  a  Christian  ?'  He  replies,  '  That  involves 
religious  tenets,  and  as  yet  I  have  not  been 
allowed  to  entertain  any.'  Again,  'Do  you 
believe  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  pun 
ishments?'  And  he  answers,  'That  involves 
sectarian  controversies,  which  have  carefully 
been  kept  from  me.'  '  Do  you  believe  in  the 
existence  of  a  God.'  He  answers  that  there 
are  clashing  doctrines  involved  in  these  things, 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        251 

which  lie  has  been  taught  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  ;  that  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  a 
God,  being  one  of  the  first  questions  of  religion, 
he  is  shortly  about  to  think  of  that  proposition. 
Why,  sir,  it  is  vain  to  talk  about  the  destructive 
tendency  of  such  a  system ;  to  argue  upon  it, 
is  to  insult  the  understanding  of  every  man; 
it  is  mere,  sheer,  low,  ribald,  vulgar  deism  and 
infidelity !     It  opposes  all   that  is  in  heaven, 
and  all  on  earth  that  is  worth  being  on  earth. 
It  destroys  the  connecting  link  between  the 
creature  and  the  Creator;  it  opposes  that  great 
system  of  universal  benevolence  and  goodness 
that  binds  man  to  his  Maker. 

."  No  religion  till  he  is  eighteen  !  What  would 
be  the  condition  of  all  our  families,  of  all  our 
children,  if  religious  fathers  and  religious 
mothers  were  to  teach  their  sons  and  daugh 
ters  no  religious  tenets  till  they  were  eighteen? 
What  would  become  of  their  morals,  their 
character,  their  purity  of  heart  and  life,  their 
hope  for  time  and  eternity?  What  would  be 
come  of  all  those  thousand  ties  of  sweetness, 
benevolence,  love,  and  Christian  feeling,  that 
now  render  our  young  men  and  young 


252        ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

maidens  like  comely  plants  growing  up  by  a 
streamlet-side;  the  graces  and  the  grace  of 
opening  manhood,  of  blossoming  womanhood  ? 
What  would  become  of  all  that  now  renders 
the  social  circle  lovely  and  beloved?  What 
would  become  of  society  itself?  How  could 
it  exist?  And  is  that  to  be  considered  a 
charity  which  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  this ; 
which  subverts  all  the  excellence  and  the 
charms  of  social  life ;  which  tends  to  destroy 
the  very  foundation  and  frame-work  of  soci 
ety,  both  in  its  practices  and  in  its  opinions ; 
which  subverts  the  whole  decency,  the  whole 
morality,  as  well  as  the  whole  Christianity  and 
)  government  of  society  ?  No,  sir !  no,  sir ! 

"It  has  been  said,  on  the  other  side,  that 
there  was  no  teaching  against  religion  or 
Christianity  in  this  system.  I  deny  it.  The 
whole  is  one  bold  proclamation  against  Chris 
tianity  and  religion  of  every  creed.  The  chil 
dren  are  to  learn  to  be  suspicious  of  Chris 
tianity  and  religion ;  to  keep  clear  of  it,  that 
their  youthful  hearts  may  not  become  suscep 
tible  of  the  influences  of  Christianity  or  religion 
in  the  slightest  degree,  They  are  to  be  told 


ARGUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        253 

and  taught  that  religion  is  not  a  matter  for 
the  heart  or  conscience,  but  for  the  decision 
of  the  cool  judgment  of  maturer  years ;  that 
at  that  period  when  the  whole  Christian  world 
deem  it  most  desirable  to  instil  the  chastening 
influences  of  Christianity  into  the  tender  and 
comparatively  pure  mind  and  heart  of  the 
child,  ere  the  cares  and  corruptions  of  the 
world  have  reached  and  seared  it,  at  that 
period  the  child  is  to  be  carefully  excluded 
therefrom,  and  to  be  told  that  its  influence  is 
pernicious  and  dangerous  in  the  extreme. 
Why,  the  whole  system  is  a  constant  preach 
ing  against  Christianity  and  against  religion, 
and  I  insist  that  there  is  no  charity,  and  can 
be  no  charity,  in  that  system  of  instruction 
from  which  Christianity  is  excluded." 

And  now  we  ask,  in  connection  with  this  re 
view  of  our  history  in  the  matter  of  a  common 
school  education,  Who  have  the  right  to  judge 
and  to  have  their  judgment  respected,  as  to 
the  nature  of  the -school  system  that  we  need, 
if  not  those  men  of  sagacity,  patriotism,  piety, 
and  comprehensive  statesmanship,  who  found- 


254        THE  LESSON  AND  THE  WARNING. 

ed  it  for  America,  for  our  own  country,  in 
view  of  our  own  peculiar  responsibilities  ? 

The  men  who  founded  it  for  America,  and 
not  for  Eome ;  for  the  wants  of  our  own  coun 
try,  and  of  those  whose  whole  dependence  is 
on  God  and  the  truth,  and  freedom  of  the 
truth  everywhere,  and  not  for  those  who  de 
pend  upon  the  darkness,  nor  with  reference  to 
that  System  which  can  flourish  only  in  exclu 
sion  of  the  light.  It  is  an  American  system, 
not  Austrian,  nor  Roman,  nor  European,  that 
we  are  to  support,  and  therefore  an  education 
under  Divine  Truth  is  needed.  A  merely 
secular  education  may  be  sufficient  in  Europe, 
where  governments  rule  by  bayonets,  but  not 
here,  where  government  depends  on  the  intel 
ligence,  morality,  and  religion  of  the  people. 
Where  another  nation  might  flourish  upon 
mere  secularism,  we  should  go  down.  We 
cannot  divorce  education  from  religion,  and 
sustain  the  Republic. 

A  deliberate  argument  for  the  divorce  of 
education  from  religion  is  so  astounding  an 
occurrence  among  a  Christian  people,  that  we 
do  not  wonder  that  those  abroad,  in  whose 


THE  LESSON  AND  THE  WARNING.        255 

way  such  an  argument  may  have  happened  to 
fall,  should  assert,  as  they  have  done,  that  the 
element  of  religion  is  absolutely  not  introduc- 
able  into  our  educational  system,  on  account 
of  peculiarities  in  our  habits,  and  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  our  national  and  State  gov 
ernments.  And  then  they  base  upon  this 
prodigious  misconception  or  falsehood,  their 
conclusion,  that  after  all,  the  exclusion  of  re 
ligion  from  a  system  of  public  education  can 
not  be  so  very  dreadful  or  dangerous  a  thing, 
if  in  a  country  like  the  United  States  the 
people  can  grow  up  without  it,  so  religious 
and  so  prosperous. 

Now,  even  our  limited  historical  surveys 
will  have  shown  that  our  educational  system, 
so  far  from  excluding  religious  principle,  re 
ligious  instruction,  and  a  religious  bias,  has 
been  for  a  longer  time  and  to  a  greater  extent, 
based  upon  the  Bible,  and  carried  forward 
with  religious  truth  as  its  vital  element,  than 
any  other  educational  system  in  the  world. 
Our  religion  and  prosperity  as  a  people  are 
owing  to  this  reality,  this  religious  educational 
training,  and  have  not  been  gained  or  main- 


25 (J        THE  LESSON  AND  THE  WARNING. 

tained  in  the  neglect  or  exclusion  of  religious 
truth.  The  rejection  of  the  Bible  and  of  all 
religious  bias,  from  our  systems  of  education, 
wherever  attempted,  or  partially  successful,  is 
an  innovation ;  a  very  daring  and  dangerous 
innovation,  for  the  most  part  attempted  and 
accomplished  at  the  instigation  of  political 
demagogues,  catering  for  Eomish  votes.  We 
wish  the  people  of  England  to  understand  this. 
We  wish  them  to  understand  that  till  within 
a  very  few  years  the  Bible  and  religion  have 
been  free  in  all  our  schools,  and  are  so  still  by 
law,  and  in  most  places  by  custom  ;  and  that 
it  is  only  by  infidel,  Komish,  and  political  in 
trigue  and  management,  that  anywhere  relig 
ious  truth  is  shut  out. 


female  0f  Sttterian 


IN  their  eager  zeal  against  sectarianism,  the 
history  of  the  school  system  shows  that  our 
school  authorities  and  legislators  have  some 
times  run  into  the  very  evil  they  were  so 
anxious  to  avoid.  This  is  painfully  manifest 
in  a  decision  incorporated  into  the  body  of 
School  Laws,  and  published  in  chapter  VIII., 
having  therefore  the  sanction  of  the  State  ;  a 
decision  disposing  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  as 
follows  :  —  •"  Schools  may  be  kept  on  Sunday 
for  the  benefit  of  those  persons  who  observe 
Saturday  as  holy  time,  and  the  teacher  must 
be  paid  for  that  day  by  those  who  send  to 
School." 

The  inconsiderateness  and  -impropriety  of 
this  legislation,  and  its  inconsistency  with  all 
22* 


258  LEGISLATION  AGAINST 

the  provisions  of  the  school  laws  against  sec 
tarianism,  will  appear  manifest  on  a  moment's 
consideration. 

Indeed,  if  ever  there  was  sectarian  legis 
lation,  this  is  such.  It  singles  out  the  Jews, 
and  legislates  in  their  behalf,  constituting  in 
reality  for  them  a  sectional  and  sectarian 
school,  on  the  very  ground  of  their  sectarian 
ism,  and  because  of  it.  It  takes  them  into  a 
peculiar  union  with  the  State,  and  that,  too, 
in  defiance  of  the  conscientious  scruples  cf 
nearly  all  other  denominations  united.  It  is 
not  only  a  profanation  of  the  Christian  Sab 
bath  by  law,  but  it  goes  the  whole  length  of 
declaring  that  the  Christian  Sabbath  has  no 
divine  sanction,  is  not  a  divinely -appointed 
day  to  be  kept  holy,  but  may  properly  be 
spent  in  a  secular  employment.  It  singles  out 
the  Jewish  Sabbath  as  more  holy  than  the 
Christian  Sabbath,  because  it  is  a  distinct  pro 
vision  for  the  profanation  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  by  an  employment  for  which  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  is  considered  as  too  holy.  It 
is  not  satisfied  with  leaving  the  Jews  at  liberty 
to  do  what  they  please,  either  on  their  Sab- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH.  259 

bath,  or  the  Christian  Sabbath,  but  it  takes 
hold  with  them,  and  makes  itself  part  and 
parcel  with  them,  in  their  profanation  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  It  gives  them  the  advan 
tage  of  the  free  common  school  system,  for 
the  profanation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  by  the 
same  employment  which  they  would  consider 
a  profanation  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  but 
which,  by  a  legislation  in  behalf  of  their  par 
ticular  conscience,  is  declared  to  be  no  prof 
anation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 

An  institution,  supported  by  the  people,  is 
used  in  this  case  for  the  profanation  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  If  it  were  no  profanation 
to  keep  the  common  schools  on  holy  time, 
then  no  reason  why  the  Jews  should  not,  as 
all  the  others,  use  the  Saturday  for  that  pur 
pose,  and  no  need  of  any  law  for  them,  per 
mitting  them  to  take  the  Christian  Sabbath  ; 
but  if  it  were  a  profanation  to  keep  the  com 
mon  schools  on  holy  time,  then  as  much  a 
profanation  of  the  Christian  as  of  the  Jewish  ; 
but  the  State,  in  making  this  law,  does  really 
declare  that  it  is  a  profanation  of  the  Jewish, 
but  no  profanation  of  the  Christian.  The 


260  LEGISLATION  AGAINST 

State  deliberately  chooses  the  conscience  of 
the  Jew,  and  allies  itself  with  that,  in  prefer 
ence  to  the  conscience  of  the  Christian,  and 
our  institution,  which  Christians  are  taxed  to 
support,  is,  by  law,  applied  to  enable  the 
Jews  to  profane  the  Christian's  holy  day. 
This  is  verily  an  outrage,  not  only  on  Christi 
anity,  but  upon  the  conscientious  rights  of 
the  Christian.  The  State  is  not  content  with 
leaving  Jews  and  Christians  to  do  as  they 
please  on  their  respective  Sabbaths,  the  Jews 
having  the  right  of  teaching  theft  children  or 
not,  and  the  Christians  the  right  of  teaching 
their 's  or  not ;  but  it  compels  the  Christians 
to  sustain  and  sanction  the  Jews,  in  the  work 
of  profaning  the  Christian  Sabbath.  It  takes 
the  school-houses  of  the  people,  and  applies 
them  to  that  purpose,  and  it  takes  the  money 
of  the  people  to  support  those  schools. 

But  this  is  not  all.  There  must  be  teachers 
on  Sunday,  and  for  all  branches  taught  on  any 
day  of  the  week,  and  if  a  corps  of  Jewish 
teachers  be  marshalled  and  appointed  for  that 
day,  this  makes  a  double  sectarianism  adopted 
by  the  State.  But  if  not  the  Jewish  teachers, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH.  261 

and  others  should  refuse,  then  might  you  see 
the  anomaly  of  the  ordinary  Christian  teach 
ers  of  our  common  schools  dismissed  from 
their  employment,  for  refusing  to  serve  the 
Jews  on  the  Christian  Sabbath.  There  is  no 
alternative,  if  this  provision  be  carried  out. 
Either  Jewish  teachers  must  be  hired  for  that 
particular  day,  under  the  authority-  and  care 
of  the  State,  or  the  ordinary  teachers  must 
continue  their  services,  and  so  be  deprived  of 
their  Sabbath,  and  made  to  labor  in  their  em 
ployment  incessantly,  seven  days  in  the  week. 
Some  persons  must  do  the  teaching  thus  pro 
vided  for,  thus  authorized  by  the  State  on  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  Shall  it  be  Jewish  teach 
ers,  employed  because  of  their  sectarianism, 
and  with  direct  reference  to  that  ?  This  makes 
a  sectarian  school.  Shall  it  be  other  teachers, 
compelled  or  hired  to  continue  their  ordinary 
week-teaching  through  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
for  the  accommodation  of  Jewish  prej  udices  ? 
This  makes  it  doubly  sectarian  and  oppressive. 
Now,  if  any  superintendent,  or  any  mem 
ber  of  the  legislature,  had  proposed  a  bill  for 
the  establishment  of  a  Sabbath  School,  tech- 


262  LEGISLATION  AGAINST 

nically  so-called,  that  is,  a  school  for  doctrinal 
religious  instruction,  in  connection  with,  and 
as  part  of  the  common  school  system,  a 
school  for  children  in  religion  on  the  Sabbath, 
in  the  public  school  rooms,  to  be  used  for  that 
purpose,  undoubtedly  there  would  have  been 
a  great  cry  made  against  this  measure,  as  secta 
rian.  But  provision  under  law  cannot  only 
be  proposed,  but  established  for  the  profanation 
of  the  Christian  Sabbath  by  secular  instruction 
as  on  all  other  days,  for  the  convenience  and 
accommodation  of  the  Jews,  or  other  like 
sects,  and  that  measure  is  not  regarded  as  sect 
arian,  or  partial,  or  improper !  Could  there 
be  a  more  glaring  anomaly  and  inconsistency  ? 
The  eager  desire  to  be  extremely  liberal,  and 
to  have  the  school  system  removed  to  the  far 
thest  opposite  point  from  the  iniquity  of  sect 
arianism,  has  caused  our  legislators  or  Super 
intendents  to  over-vault  themselves,  and  fall 
on  the  other  side.  The  effort  to  make  the  sys 
tem  of  education  a  political  stalking-horse, 
produced  the  same  result,  when  the  school- 
books  were  mangled  and  mutilated  at  the  com 
mand  of  the  sect  of  Romanists.  But  this  in- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH.  263 

trusion  on  the  Sabbath  is  worse  in  some  re 
spects  than  that  sectarian  foray  upon  the 
school-books.  It  is  a  deliberate  legalized  prof 
anation  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

But  some  will  answer,  Do  you  call  instruct 
ing  the  poor,  or  the  rich,  or  any  children,  in 
reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  on  the  Sab 
bath,  a  profanation  of  the  Sabbath?  Nay, 
not  we  have  done  this,  but  the  State.  The 
appointed  School  authorities  take  the  opinion 
and  conscience  of  the  Jews,  that  such  employ 
ment,  such  secular  instruction,  is  a  profanation 
of  holy  time,  and  by  law  protect  that  conscience, 
and  provide  for  their  profaning  the  holy  time 
of  the  Christian  Sabbath  instead  of  the  Jewish, 
by  precisely  the  same  employment.  If  it  be 
a  profanation  of  the  Jews7  Sabbath,  on  the  plea 
that  that  is  holy  time,  it  is  just  as  much  a  prof 
anation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  if  that  is 
holy  time.  The  State  authorities  have  de 
clared  that  it  is  a  profanation  of  the  Jews1 
Sabbath,  and  on  that  account  have  given  them 
the  Christian  Sabbath  to  profane  instead. 

If  it  is  a  profanation  of  the  Jews'  Sabbath, 
then  also  a  profanation  of  the  Christian ;  but 


264  LEGISLATION  AGAINST 

if  not  a  profanation  of  the  Jews'  Sal  bath,  then 
no  need  of  giving  them  the  Christian  Sabbath 
for  such  profanation  instead  of  their  own. 
But  by  this  peculiar  legislation  the  State  has 
in  effect  declared  that  common  school  instruc 
tion  is  a  profanation  of  holy  time,  and  there 
fore  a  profanation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  if 
that  be  holy  time.  But  the  Christian  religion 
establishes  it  as  holy  time,  as  unquestionably 
as  the  Jewish  religion  establishes  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  as  holy  time ;  and  therefore  the  legis 
lature,  (for  it  is  under  their  sanction  that  this 
law  is  engrossed  and  published,)  in  ordaining 
that  the  Christian  Sabbath  shall  be  given  up 
to  the  Jews  for  common  school  instruction, 
instead  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  have  elected 
and  inaugurated  the  Jewish  religion  as  more 
sacred  than  the  Christian.  And  yet,  they  seem 
not  to  have  dreamed  of  there  being  anything 
sectarian  in  such  Jewish  and  unchristian  legis 
lation. 

The  dilemma  is  as  follows :  We  take  first 
the  supposition  that  the  legislature  believe  in 
a  Sabbath.  Then  it  follows  that  the  legisla 
ture  either  believe  the  Christian  Sabbath  to  be 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH.  265 

holy  time  or  not.  If  not,  (if  the  character  of 
such  sacredness  do  not  belong  to  the  idea  and 
nature  of  the  Sabbath,)  then  neither  is  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  holy  time  ;  so  that  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  Jews  might  as  well  go  on  upon 
that  day,  as  any  other.  But  if  it  be  holy  time, 
then  common  school  instruction  of  the  Jews 
is  a  profanation  of  the  Christian,  as  well  as  of 
the  Jews'  Sabbath. 

But  again,  on  the  supposition  that  such 
sacredness  does  belong  to  the  nature  of  the 
true  Sabbath,  either  the  legislature  believe 
that  the  Jews'  Sabbath  is  holy  time,  or  not. 
If  not,  then  the  Christian  Sabbath  is;  and 
they  have  no  right  to  provide  for  the  violation 
of  the  Christian  Sabbath  by  those  who  dis 
regard  it.  Disregard  it  they  may,  for  them 
selves,  but  the  legislature  have  no  right  to 
provide  for  such  disregard  by  law. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  they  believe  the  Jew 
ish  Sabbath  to  be  holy  time,  the  true  Sabbath, 
then  they  have  no  right,  in  direct  contraven 
tion  of  that  belief,  to  profane  that  day,  Satur 
day,  by  the  secular  instruction  of  any  of  the 
children  in  any  of  the  schools.  They  should 
22 


266  LEGISLATION  AGAINST 

shut  the  schools,  and  keep  the  holy  time  holy, 
after  the  example  of  the  Jews ;  unless,  indeed, 
they  will  institute  Sabbath  schools  of  a  Satur 
day,  which  again  would  be  violently  opposed 
as  sectarian. 

But  once  more.  The  legislature  and  the 
people  either  believe  one  day  or  the  other,  to 
be  holy  time,  or  neither.  If  neither  be  holy 
time,  then  they  have  no  right  to  legislate  for 
the  keeping  of  either  in  preference  to  the 
other. 

But  here,  perhaps,  some  one  is  ready  to  say 
that  the  legislature,  or  the  superintendents 
under  sanction  of  the  legislature,  though  be 
lieving  or  admitting  that  Sunday  is  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath,  yet  legislated  for  its  profanation 
to  ease  the  conscience  of  the  Jews,  and  supply 
their  loss  of  Saturday  by  a  sacrifice  to  them 
of  our  Sunday.  But  this,  again,  is  just  rob 
bing  Peter  to  pay  Paul.  Or  rather,  it-  is 
robbing  God,  to  make  way  for  human  opinion 
and  convenience.  It  is  the  scene  of  Christian 
legislators  violating  their  own  consciences,  and 
the  conscience  of  all  the  people  who  believe  in 
the  holiness  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  to  en- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH.  267 

able  the  Jews  to  pursue  their  worldly  avoca 
tions  on  the  Lord's  Day.  If  the  case  were,  to 
enable  the  Jews  to  avoid  violating  their  con 
science  in  profaning  their  Sabbath,  it  would  be 
quite  different.  But  there  is  no  compulsion 
either  way.  If  there  were,  and  one  party  or 
the  other  were  under  necessity  of  such  profa 
nation,  the  question  then  might  be,  whether 
the  legislature  and  all  Christian  sects  should 
violate  their  conscience  for  the  ease  of  the 
Jews,  or  the  Jews  their' s  for  the  ease  of  all  the 
rest. 

But  that  is  not  the  case,  and  cannot  be.  No 
Jew,  nor  any  person  that  keeps  Saturday  as 
holy  time,  is  compelled  to  violate  it ;  and,  at 
the  uttermost,  in  the  case  before  us,  the  cost  of 
keeping  it  can  be  only  the  loss  of  a  half- day's 
secular  instruction,  since  none  of  the  schools 
are  kept  more  than  half  the  day  on  Saturday. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  case  of  a  Chris 
tian  legislature  giving  up  the  whole  Christian 
Sabbath  for  profanation,  in  order  to  supply 
the  loss  of  half  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  considered 
too  sacred  to  ~be  profaned.  The  idea  and  ac 
knowledgement  of  profanation  lies  inevitably 


268  THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH. 

embraced  in  the  very  exemption  of  the  Jews 
from  secular  instruction  in  holy  time,  and  their 
compensation  by  giving  them  the  Christian 
Sabbath  instead  of  their  own  for  such  ac 
knowledged  profanation.  The  bare  insertion 
of  the  condition  that  those  who  send  that  day 
shall  pay  the  teacher,  makes  little  difference, 
since  the  school-houses,  and  the  whole  pre 
rogative,  provision,  and  advantage  of  the  sys 
tem,  are  bestowed  for  their  use. 


taiwm  Srfyrol  Ssptw  0f 


THE  historical  example  of  Connecticut  is 
interesting  and  instructive.  As  early  as  1656, 
explicit  laws  were  added  to  the  general  law 
by  which  the  schools  were  first  instituted,  and 
the  deputies,  constables,  and  other  officers  in 
public  trust,  were  required  to  take  care  "that 
all  their  children  and  apprentices  as  they  grow 
capable,  may,  through  God's  blessing,  attain  at 
least  so  much  as  to  be  able  duly  to  read  the 
Scriptures,  and  other  good  and  profitable 
printed  books  in  the  English  tongue,  and  in 
some  competent  measure  to  understand  the 
main  grounds  and  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion  necessary  to  salvation."  By  repeated 
legislation,  and  patient  effort,  the  school  sys 
tem  was  brought  to  such  a  degree  of  efficacy, 
that,  as  President  Kingsley  remarked,  "for 
22* 


270  COMMON  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  a  native  of  Con 
necticut,  of  mature  age,  unable  to  read  the 
English  tongue,  has  been  looked  upon  as  a 
prodigy.  The  source  of  the  wide-spread  and 
incalculable  benefit  of  popular  education  in 
America,"  President Kingsley  continues,  "may 
be  traced,  without  danger  of  error,  to  a  few 
of  the  leading  Puritans.  If  the  early  Pil 
grims,  more  particularly  of  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  had  not  struggled  and  toiled  for 
this  great  object,  and  if  they  had  not  been  im 
mediately  succeeded  by  men  who  had  imbibed 
a  large  portion  of  the  same  spirit,  the  school- 
system  of  New  England  would  not  now  exist." 

"  The  schools  of  this  State,"  says  the  Connecticut  Com 
mon  School  Journal,  "  were  founded  and  supported  chiefly 
for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  civil  and  religious  knowl 
edge  and  liberty,  as  the  early  laws  of  the  colony  explicit 
ly  declare.  Those  laws,  some  of  which  were  published  in 
the  first  number  of  this  Journal,  as  clearly  declare,  that 
the  chief  means  to  be  used  to  attain  those  objects,  was  the 
reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

"  In  many  schools,  in  later  years,  the  Bible  has  not  been 
used ;  though  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  ancient 
custom  of  our  venerable  ancestors  has  recently  been  grad 
ually  reviving.  Circumstances  have  favored  its  restora 
tion  ;  and  increasing  light  on  the  principles  of  sound  ed 
ucation  cannot  fail  to  establish  it  everywhere. 

"  Certificates  are  in  our  hands,  from  experienced  instruct- 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  271 

ors  out  of  this  State,  which  bear  strong  testimony  to  the 
happy  influences  exerted  in  their  schools,  by  the  daily  use 
of  the  Scriptures. 

"  Different  teachers  we  have  seen,  who  used  the  Bible  in 
different  ways :  some  as  a  class-book,  some  as  a  text-book  ; 
and  it  is  interesting  to  see  in  how  many  forms  it  may  be 
brought  into  use.  Some  teachers,  with  a  map  of  Palestine 
before  them,  will  give  most  interesting  lessons  on  almost 
any  book  in  the  Bible,  by  mingling  geography,  history, 
ancient  manners  and  customs,  with  moral  and  religious 
considerations.  Others  make  the  Bible  the  law-book  of 
the  school ;  and  by  showing  that  they  consider  themselves 
and  their  pupils  equally  bound  to  conform  their  lives  and 
thoughts  to  its  sacred  dictates,  exercise  a  species  of  disci 
pline  of  the  happiest  kind.  Others  still,  by  the  aid  of 
printed  questions,  or  some  systematic  plan  of  study,  em 
ploy  the  Bible  iu  training  the  intellect,  storing  the  mem 
ory,  and  furnishing  the  fancy  with  the  richest  treasures 
of  literature.  Others  think  that  the  various  styles  found 
in  the  sacred  volume,  offer  the  very  best  exercises  for 
practice  in  reading  with  propriety  and  effect ;  while  a 
critical  attention  to  the  character,  situation,  and  feelings 
of  the  speakers,  which  such  exercises  require,  has  favora 
ble  moral  influences.  Finally,  other  teachers  believe  that 
the  daily  reading  of  the  Bible  in  schools,  is  of  essential 
benefit  to  the  pupils  in  various  ways ;  and  that  the  fre 
quent  repetition  of  the  Word  of  God  in  the  hearing  even 
of  those  too  young  to  read,  is  an  inestimable  blessing — a 
part  of  the  birthright  of  every  child  in  a  Christian  land, 
which  cannot  be  rightfully  withholden. 

"  To  these  views  our  readers  may  add  their  own  as  they 
often  and  seriously  consider  the  subject.  It  is  one  which 
will  probably  be  ever  esteemed  a  vital  one  in  Connecticut; 
and  if  Monsieur  Cousin  so  warmly  urged  upon  the  gov 
ernment  of  France,  to  make  religious  instruction  the  cor 
ner-stone  of  their  national  system  of  education,  and  urged 


272  COMMON  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

with  success  the  example  of  Prussia,  we  may  with  greater 
confidence  invite  the  people  of  our  State  to  supply  their 
schools  with  the  Scriptures,  and  point  to  the  laws  passed 
by  their  fathers  for  this  very  end,  nearly  two  centuries 
ago,  and  (so  far  as  we  have  the  ability  to  comprehend  so 
vast  a  subject)  to  the  noble  effects  produced  even  by 
their  imperfect  observance." 

"The  interests  of  education,"  says  Chancellor  Kent, 
speaking  particularly  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  "  had 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  New  England  colonists  from 
the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country ;  and  the  system  of 
common  and  grammar  schools  and  of  academical  and  col 
legiate  instruction,  was  interwoven  with  the  primitive 
views  and  institutions  of  the  Puritans.  Everything  in 
their  genius  and  disposition  was  favorable  to  the  growth 
of  freedom  and  learning,  but  with  a  tendency  to  stern 
regulations  for  the  maintenance  of  civil  and  religious 
order.  They  were  a  grave  and  thinking  people,  of  much 
energy  of  character,  and  of  lofty  and  determined  purpose. 
Religion  was  with  them  a  deep  and  powerful  sentiment, 
and  of  absorbing  interest.  The  first  emigrants  had  studied 
the  oracles  of  truth  as  a  text-book,  and  they  were  pro 
foundly  affected  by  the  unqualified  commands,  the  awful 
sanctions,  and  the  sublime  views  and  animating  hopes 
and  consolations  which  accompanied  the  revelation  of 

life  and  immortality The  avowed  object 

of  their  emigration  to  New  England  was  to  enjoy  and 
propagate  the  reformed  Protestant  faith  in  the  purity  of 
its  discipline  and  worship.  They  intended  to  found  re 
publics  on  the  basis  of  Christianity,  and  to  secure  relig 
ious  liberty  under  the  auspices  of  a  commonwealth.  With 
this  primary  view  they  were  early  led  to  make  strict 
provision  for  common  school  education,  and  the  religious 

instruction  of  the  people The  Word  of  God 

was  at  that  time  almost  the  sole  object  of  their  solicitude 
and  studies,  and  the  principal  design  in  planting  them- 


OF   CONNECTICUT.  273 

selves  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  was  to  preserve 

the  liberty  and  purity  of  the  gospel We  meet 

•with  the  system  of  common  schools  in  the  earliest  of  the 
colonial  records.  Strict  and  accurate  provision  was  made 
by  law  for  the  support  of  schools  in  each  town,  and  a 
grammar  school  in  each  county ;  and  even  family  instruc 
tion  was  placed  under  the  vigilant  supervision  of  the 
selectmen  of  the  town.  This  system  of  free  schools,  sus 
tained  and  enforced  by  law,  has  been  attended  with  mo 
mentous  results,  and  it  has  communicated  to  the  people 
of  this  State,  and  to  every  other  part  of  New  England  in 
which  the  system  has  prevailed,  the  blessings  of  order 
and  security  to  an  extent  never  before  surpassed  in  the 
annals  of  mankind." 


Cranurn  $400!  Ssstm  0f 


As  early  as  1647,  less  than  twenty  years 
from  the  date  of  their  first  charter,  the  Colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  made  provision  by  law 
for  the  support  of  schools  at  the  public  expense, 
for  instruction  in  reading  and  writing,  in  every 
town  containing  fifty  families;  and  for  the 
support  of  a  grammar-school,  the  instructor 
of  which  should  be  competent  to  prepare 
young  men  for  the  University,  in  every  town 
containing  one  hundred  families.  This  was  a 
noble  foundation,  and  it  was  the  religious 
foresight  of  the  Colonists  that  laid  it.  The 
preamble  to  the  school  law  runs  thus:  —  "It 
being  one  chief  object  of  Satan  to  keep  men 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scripture,  as  in 
former  times  keeping  them  in  unknown 
tongues,  so  in  these  latter  times  by  persuading 


COMMON  SCHOOLS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.      2<5 

them  from  the  use  of  tongues,  that  so  at  least 
the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the  original 
might  be  clouded  and  corrupted  with  false 
glosses  of  deceivers,  therefore  to  the  end  that 
learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of 
our  forefathers  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors,  it  is  ordered 
by  this  Court,  and  the  authority  thereof,  that 
every  township,"  &c. 

By  this  school  law,  provision  was  not  only 
made  for  the  schools,  but  for  the  religious 
character  of  the  teachers,  and  none  others  but 
persons  of  religious  faith  and  life  were  admit 
ted,  or  suffered  "  to  be  continued  in  the  office 
or  place  of  teaching,  educating,  or  instructing 
youth  or  children  in  college  or  schools." 

"  Whatever  Were  the  causes,"  says  Mr.  Car 
ter  in  his  letters  to  Win.  Prescott,  "  which  led 
the  Puritans  of  New  England  to  the  adoption 
of  their  liberal  and  enlightened  policy  in  regard 
to  free  schools,  the  effects  were  certainly  most 
happy  upon  the  condition  of  the  people.  And 
with  the  advantages  of  their  experience,  and 
of  living  in  a  more  enlightened  age,  we  could 
hardly  hope,  on  the  whole,  to  make  more  noble 


276  COMMON  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

exertions  for  the  promotion  of  the  same  object. 
Their  pious  care  of  the  morals  of  the  young ; 
their  deep  and  devoted  interest  in  the  general 
dissemination  of  knowledge ;  and  the  sacrifices 
they  endured  to  afford  encouragement  and 
patronage  to  those  nurseries  of  piety  and 
knowledge,  the  free  schools,  are  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other 
country.'' 

Nurseries  of  piety  and  knowledge,  because 
the  Bible  and  its  religious  .instruction  were 
their  foundation,  and  the  children  in  them 
were  trained  under  religious  motives.  But 
oui-  forefathers  would  have  rejected  with  hor 
ror  the  thought  of  excluding  the  Bible  and 
religious  instruction  from  the  schools. 

The  school  laws  of  Massachusetts  contain 
the  following  comprehensive,  religious,  and 
remarkable  enactment : — 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president,  pro 
fessors,  and  tutors  of  the  University  at  Cam 
bridge,  and  of  the  several  colleges,  and  of  all 
preceptors  and  teachers  of  academies,  and  all 
other  instructors  of  youth,  to  exert  their  best 
endeavors  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  children 


OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  277 

and  youth,  committed  to  their  care  and  in 
struction,  the  principles  of  piety,  justice,  and 
a  sacred  regard  to  truth,  love  to  their  country, 
humanity,  and  universal  benevolence,  so 
briety,  industry,  and  frugality,  chastity,  moder 
ation,  and  temperance,  and  those  other  vir 
tues  which  are  the  ornament  of  human  society 
and  the  basis  upon  which  a  republican  consti 
tution  is  founded  ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of 
such  instructors  to  endeavor  to  lead  their 
pupils  into  a  clear  understanding  of  the  ten 
dency  of  the  above-mentioned  virtues,  to  pre 
serve  and  perfect  a  republican  constitution,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty,  as  well  as  to 
promote  their  future  happiness ;  and,  also,  to 
point  out  to  them  the  evil  tendency  of  the  op 
posite  vices." 

There  is  no  sectarianism  in  this  enactment, 
but  there  is  religion,  and  a  provision  for  re 
ligious  instruction.  The  observance  of  this 
one  law  would,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  pro 
duce,  as  the  result  of  a  common  school  edu 
cation,  an  elevated  Christian  character  in 
every  pupil.  The  inculcation  of  religious 
truth  is  not  left  to  the  varying  opinions  or  will 
23 


278       COMMON  SCHOOLS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

of  successive  school  administrations,  but  is 
forever  binding.  No  political  manager,  at  the 
instigation  of  Komanism,  may  brand  such  in 
struction  as  sectarian,  or  accuse  the  Govern 
ment  of  overstepping  its  functions  in  teaching 
the  principles  of  PIETY,  and  leading  the  pupils 
into  a  clear  understanding  of  them,  which  yet 
cannot  possibly  be  done,  without  the  Word  of 
God.  The  principles  of  piety  cannot  possibly 
be  taught  in  any  school,  or  by  any  instructor, 
without  religious  truth,  and  a  religious  bias 
given  to  the  instruction ;  so  that  the  theory 
that  no  system  of  public  education  can  be  im 
partial,  unless  it  excludes  all  distinctive  re 
ligious  teaching,  receives  here  the  best  pos 
sible  practical  refutation,  in  the  freest  and 
most  impartial  and  unsectarian  school-system 
in  the  world.  But  the  Bible  itself  is  distinct 
ive  religious  teaching,  and  a  clear  understand 
ing  of  piety  and  virtue  is  not  possible  without 
the  Bible ;  if  virtue  be  essential  to  be  taught, 
the  Bible  is  essential  to  be  taught. 


0f  gfotimial 


Lsr  the  sixth  article  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  Board  of  National  Popular  Education, 
there  is  required  from  all  the  teachers  "the 
daily  use  of  the  Bible  in  their  several  schools, 
as  the  basis  of  that  sound  Christian  education, 
to  the  support  and  extension  of  which  the 
Board  is  solemnly  pledged."  From  the  Fifth 
Annual  Eeport  of  this  Board,  we  select  the 
following  paragraphs  from  a  speech  by  Mr. 
Sawtell,  at  the  Anniversary  in  Cleveland,  in 
1852.  We  make  this  quotation,  because  it 
presents,  by  so  happy  and  powerful  an  illus 
tration,  the  necessity  of  a  free  and  open  Bible 
in  our  common  schools,  as  the  only  possible 
way  in  which  our  nation  can  continue  self- 
governed.  The  Bible  for  the  masses,  Mr. 
Sawtell  truly  proclaims,  is  God's  great  instru- 


280  BOARD  OF 

ment  for  governing  men  and  nations.      The 
Bible  for  the  millions  of  the  young. 

"  There  is  but  one  alternative.  God  will 
have  men  and  nations  governed ;  and  they 
must  be  governed  by  one  of  the  two  instru 
ments — AN  OPEN  BIBLE,  with  its  hallowed  in 
fluences,  or  A  STANDING  ARMY  WITH  BRIS 
TLING  BAYONETS.  One  is  the  product  of  God's 
wisdom,  the  other,  of  man's  folly ;  and  that 
nation  or  people  that  dare  discard,  or  will  not 
yield  to  the  moral  power  of  the  one,  must  sub 
mit  to  the  brute  force  of  the  other.  Herein 
do  we  discover  the  secret  of  our  ability  to 
govern  ourselves.  Just  so  long,  and  no 
longer,  than  we  preserve  the  open  Bible  in  our 
schools,  shall  we  be  capable  of  self-govern 
ment.  Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning  by  a 
single  fact :  During  a  seven  years'  residence 
in  France,  party  politics  often  ran  high  in  my 
native  land.  The  whole  country,  on  the  eve 
of  a  presidential  election,  seemed  like  '  Ocean 
into  tempest  wrought.'  Political  editors 
seemed  to  be  at  swords'  points ;  and,  to  the 
Frenchman,  our  ship  of  State  appeared  liter 
ally  to  be  beating  upon  the  shoals  and  quick- 


NATIONAL  POPULAR  EDUCATION.        281 

sands  of  a  lee  shore ;  and  their  cry  was,  *  She 
must  go  down — she  can  never  out-ride  the 
storm.'  But  the  next  arrival,  perhaps,  an 
nounced  the  result  of  the  contest,  the  triumph 
and  the  defeat.  The  storm  had  died  away — 
scarcely  a  ripple  to  be  seen  upon  the  mighty 
ocean  of  agitated  mind.  The  farmer  had  re 
turned  quietly  to  his  plough — the  mechanic  to 
his  shop — the  merchant  to  his  counting-house ; 
and  those  editors,  who,  to  the  Frenchman, 
seemed  so  belligerent,  were  playing  off  their 
jokes  upon  each  other,  as  though  nothing  had 
happened.  And  now,  the  noble  ship  once 
more  rights  herself,  obeys  her  helm,  and,  with 
all  her  canvas  spread  to  the  wind,  her  ban 
ners  unfurled,  her  stars  and  stripes  waving  at 
mast-head,  she  booms  onward  with  accelerated 
speed  and  power,  to  the  chagrin  and  amaze 
ment  of  every  despotic  power  in  the  Old 
"World;  while  the  Frenchman,  with  a  shrug 
of  the  shoulder,  would  press  my  hand  and  ex 
claim — '  You,  Americans,  are  the  queerest 
people  in  the  world.  How  is  it,  that  you  can 
create  such  a  storm,  and  your  political  editors 
can  talk  so  rabidly,  and  lash  the  whole  nation, 
24* 


282  BOARD  OF 

like  an  ocean,  into  mountain  waves,  and  yet, 
the  moment  the  election  is  "over,  all  is  quiet, 
all  seem  satisfied?  Can  you  explain  it? 
Why,  if  such  a  storm  had  been  raised  here  in 
France,  blood  would  have  flown  to  the  horse's 
bridles.  Do  tell  me  the  secret  of  that  power 
that  can  control  the  multitude,  under  such  ex 
citement?'  Well,  how  did  I  explain  it?  I'll 
tell  you  in  few  words  : — 

"  Opening  the  Bible,  I  said  to  the  French 
man — <'  From  this  despised  and  proscribed 
book,  which  God  has  given  to  illumine  the 
path  of  every  man,  emanate  the  light  and  the 
power  that  control  the  American  mind  in 
such  emergencies.  Tens  of  thousands  of  our 
citizens  who  deposit  their  votes  in  the  ballot 
box,  have  been  blessed  with  pious  mothers, 
who  brought  their  infant  minds  early  in  con 
tact  with  God's  precious  truth.  They  taught 
them  to  commit  to  memory  such  passages  as 
these — "  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than 
the  mighty,  and  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit,  than 
he  that  taketh  a  city."  "The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom."  "  Kemem- 
ber  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth." 


NATIONAL  POPULAR  EDUCATION.         283 

"  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that  they  should 
do  unto  you,"  &c.}  &c.      These  and  kindred 
texts  were   taught  them  in  the  nursery,  the 
sabbath  school,  public  schools,  by  mothers  and 
teachers,  as  God  commands^  "  when  they  went 
out  and  when  they  came  in,  when  they  sat 
down  and  when  they  rose  up,"  giving  them 
"line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  here  a 
little  and  there  a  little,"  thus  engraving  them 
deeply  upon  the  tablets  of  their  hearts,  im 
buing   their  infant  spirits  with  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel — which  is  "  peace  on  earth  and  good 
will  to  man."    Thus  they  grew  up  and  matured 
into  manhood,  with  this  leaven  working  in 
them,  both  to  will  and  to  do   that  which  is 
just  and  equal  toward  God  and  toward  men  ; 
and  though  multitudes  there  may  be,  who 
have  not  been  blessed  with  this  early  religious 
training  from  an  open  Bible,  yet  a  sufficient 
number  have  been  thus  trained  to  exert  an 
all-pervading,   controlling  influence   over  the 
masses ;    and  hence  our  indebtedness  to   an 
OPEN  BIBLE,  for  our  ability  to  govern  our 
selves.     Take  from  us  the  open  Bible,  and 
like  Sampson  shorn  of  his  locks,  we  should 


284        NATIONAL  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

become  as  weak  as  any  other  people.  Take 
away  the  Bible,  and  like  Italy,  Austria  and 
Russia,  we  would  need  a  despot  on  a  throne, 
and  a  standing  army  of  half  a  million,  to  keep 
the  populace  in  subjection.'  " 

With  the  Bible,  men  can  govern  them 
selves,  and  despots  are  superfluous ;  without 
the  Bible,  they  are  a  natural  product  and  ne 
cessity  of  society.  Hence  the  malignant  in 
stinct  of  priestly  and  monarchical  despotism 
against  the  Word  of  God  ;  what  have  we  to 
do  with  thee  ?  art  thou  come  hither  to  torment 
us  before  the  time  ?  Nothing  would  more 
surely  lengthen  out  the  lease  and  life  of  des 
potism,  than  a  scheme  for  the  education  of 
children,  which  should  sedulously  exclude  all 
Biblical  or  Christian  instruction.  Mr.  Web 
ster  cites  a  law  case,  decided  in  England,  in 
1842,  in  the  following  summary :  "  Courts  of 
equity,  in  this  country,  will  not  sanction  any 
system  of  education,  in  which  religion  is  not 
included."  The  freedom  and  good  govern 
ment  of  a  country  are  then  and  there  only 
practically  secured,  where  all  the  children  are 
educated  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures. 


tetom  attir  ®nm  in 


THE  common  law  and  opinion  in  Massa 
chusetts,  as  well  as  the  statute,  protect  the 
right  of  the  Bible  and  of  religious  instruction 
in  common  schools.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  effort  of  the  Romanists  against  the  Bible 
cannot  there  be  successful,  though  the  dis 
astrous  experiment  of  its  banishment  may  be 
tried  in  some  cases  for  a  season.  But  if  once 
expelled,  its  restoration  is  well-nigh  hopeless. 
Obsta  principiis.  It  was  Mr.  Choate  who  ex 
claimed,  in  one  of  his  orations  :  "  Banish  the 
Bible  from  our  public  schools  ?  Never  !  so 
long  as  a  piece  of  Plymouth  Eock  remains 
big  enough  to  make  a  gun-flint  out  of  I"  This 
is  the  feeling  of  true  patriotism,  for  our  liberty 
rests  upon  the  instruction  of  our  children  in 


286  CUSTOM  AND  OPINION 

Divine  truth,  and  "he  is  the  freeman  whom 
the  truth  makes  free." 

"So  pervading  and  enduring  is  the  effect 
of  education  upon  the  youthful  soul,"  says 
Horace  ^Mann,  speaking  of  a  common  school 
education,  "that  it  may  well  be  compared  to 
a  certain  species  of  writing  ink,  whose  color 
at  first  is  scarcely  perceptible,  but  which  pen 
etrates  deeper  and  grows  blacker  by  age,  until, 
if  you  consume  the  scroll  over  a  coal-fire,  the 
characters  will  still  be  legible  in  the  cinders. 
Hence  I  have  always  admired  that  law  of  the 
Icelanders,  by  which,  when  a  minor  child 
commits  an  offence,  the  courts  first  make  judi 
cial  inquiry  whether  his  parents  have  given 
him  a  good  education;  and  if  it  be  proved 
they  have  not,  the  child  is  acquitted  and  the 
parents  are  punished.  In  both  the  old  colo 
nies  of  Plymouth  and  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
if  a  child  over  sixteen  and  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  committed  a  certain  capital  offence 
against  father  or  mother,  he  was  allowed  to 
arrest  judgment  of  death  upon  himself,  by 
showing  that  his  parents,  in  the  language  of 


IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 


287 


the  law,  *  had  been  very  unchristianly  negligent 
in  his  education.' " 

And  what  if  the  State  had  been  very  un 
christianly  negligent  in  his  education  ?  "What 
if  the  State  have  withheld  from  him,  or  have 
suffered  to  be  withheld,  during  the  only  course 
of  education  provided  for  him  ly  the  State,  all 
knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  of  the 
sanctions  of  religion  enforced  in  that  Word? 

Speaking  again  of  common  schools,  and  of 
that  religious  training  necessary  for  the  reason 
and  conscience  under  a  sense  of  responsibility 
to  God,  Mr.  Mann  remarks:  "But  if  this  is 
ever  done,  it  must  be  mainly  done  during  the 
docile  and  teachable  years  of  childhood.     So 
ciety  is  responsible,  clergymen  are  responsible, 
all  are  responsible,  who  can  elevate  the  masses 
of  the  people.     The  conductors  of  the  public 
press,  legislators  and  rulers,  are  responsible. 
In  our  country  and  in  our  times,  no  man  is 
worthy  the  honored  name  of  statesman,  who 
does  not  include  the  highest  practicable  edu 
cation  of  the  people  in  all  his  plans  of  adminis- 

*  Lectures  by  Horace  Mann,  Secretary  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Board  of  Education. 


288  CUSTOM  AND  OPINION 

tration.  If  this  dread  responsibility  for  the 
fate  of  our  children  be  disregarded,  how  can 
we  expect  to  escape  the  condemnation,  '  Inas 
much  as  ye  have  not  done  it  to  one  of  the 
least  of  them,  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  me.' " 
"  As  educators,  as  friends  and  sustainers  of 
the  common  school  system,  our  great  duty  is 
to  prepare  these  living  and  intelligent  souls ; 
to  awaken  the  faculty  of  thought  in  all  the 
children  of  the  Commonwealth ;  to  impart  to 
them  the  greatest  practicable  amount  of  useful 
knowledge ;  to  cultivate  in  them  a  sacred  re 
gard  to  truth ;  to  keep  them  unspotted  from 
the  world,  that  is,  uncontaminated  from  its 
vices ;  to  train  them  up  to  the  love  of  God 
and  the  love  of  man  ;  to  make  the  perfect  ex 
ample  of  Jesus  Christ  lovely  in  their  eyes ;  and 
to  give  to  all  so  much  religious  instruction  as 
is  compatible  with  the  rights  of  others  and  the 
gains  of  our  government ;  and  when  the  chil 
dren  arrive  at  years  of  maturity,  to  commend 
them  to  that  inviolable  prerogative  of  private 
judgment  and  of  self-direction,  which  in  a 
Protestant  and  Republican  country,  is  the  ac 
knowledged  birth-right  of  every  human  being." 


IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  289 

If  now  we  should  take  at  random  the  va 
rious  expressions  of  opinion,  from  different 
towns  and  districts,  we  should  find  these  sen 
timents  sustained.  The  conviction  is  all  but 
universal  that  a  just  training  of  the  child  in 
a  common  school  education  is  impossible  in 
the  exclusion  of  religious  instruction.  A  Ee- 
port  of  the  School  Committee  of  the  city  of 
Salem,  Mass.,  declares  that  "  the  sentiment  of 
all  parties  is  that  moral  instruction  and  moral 
consideration  ought  to  have  precedence  of 
everything  else."  In  the  regulations  of  the 
public  schools  in  the  town  of  Swampscot,  the 
following  is  the  fourth  section :  "  The  moru- 
ing  exercises  of  the  schools  shall  commence 
with  the  reading  of  the  Bible ;  and  it  is  recom 
mended  that  the  reading  be  followed  with 
some  devotional  service."  And  so  in  cases 
without  number,  the  idea  of  banishing  the  Bi 
ble  and  religious  instruction  as  sectarian,  would 
be  deemed  heathenish. 

The  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Superintendent 

of  the  Public  Schools  in  the  city  of  Boston, 

remarks,  that    "  the   moral   feelings,  in   their 

early  manifestations,  appear  first  to  the  motia- 

25 


290  CUSTOM  AND  OPINION 

er's  eye,  whose  light  should,  like  that  of  the 
sun  falling  upon  opening  flowers,  give  them 
the  hues  of  imperishable  beauty.  But  unfor 
tunately  for  the  rising  generation,  this  high 
parental  duty  is  now  so  often  neglected  at 
home,  that  many  a  child  must  receive  at  school 
his  first  notions  of  his  various  duties  as  a  so 
cial  and  an  immortal  being.  True  education, 
in  the  broad  and  liberal  meaning  of  the  term, 
includes  ....  such  a  moulding  of  the  youth 
ful  affections  and  impulses,  as  will  bring  them 
into  ready  obedience  to  the  voice  of  conscience, 
and  above  all,  SUCH  RELIGIOUS  CULTURE  as  will 
aim  at  imbuing  the  mind  with  that  Christian 
spirit  which  teaches  us  to  love  God  with  all  the 
heart,  and  our  neighbor  as  ourselves." 

This  would  be  impossible,  were  the  Bible 
and  religious  instruction  excluded  from  the 
schools.  If  the  proposed  divorce  of  a  common 
school  education  from  religious  truth  should 
be  accomplished,  where  is  the  "  religious  cul 
ture"  that  constitutes  a  primary  part  of  "  true 
education"  to  be  provided  or  introduced? 
The  affections  cannot  be  rightly  moulded,  the 


IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  291 

conscience  cannot  be  trained,  without  religious 
instruction. 

Mr.  Mann  applies  the  same  principles  to  the 
formation  of  District  Common  School  libra 
ries,  and  contends  that  one  grand  object  of 
them  should  be,  by  the  substitution  of  useful 
books  instead  of  idle  and  immoral  trash,  to 
protect  the  children  from  those  temptations 
and  exposures  which  come  from  the  flood  of 
pernicious  reading.  "  Much  can  be  done  by 
the  substitution  of  books  and  studies  which 
expound  human  life  and  human  duty  as  God 
has  made  them  to  be."  "  To  rear  the  amaranth 
of  virtue  for  a  celestial  soil ;  to  pencil,  as  with 
living  flame,  a  rainbow  of  holy  promise  and 
peace  upon  the  blackness  and  despair  of  a 
guilty  life ;  to  fit  the  spirits  of  weak  and  err 
ing  mortals  to  shine  forever  as  stars  amid  the 
host  of  heaven ;  for  these  diviner  and  more 
glorious  works,  God  asks  our  aid;  and  He 
points  to  children  who  have  been  evoked  into 
life  as  the  objects  of  our  labor  and  care." 

u  For  this  purpose,  I  know  of  no  plan  as 
yet  conceived  by 'philanthropy,  which  prom 
ises  to  be  so  comprehensive  and  efficacious  as 


292  CUSTOM  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

the  establishment  of  good  libraries  in  all  our 
school  districts,  open  respectively  to  all  the 
children  in  the  State,  and  within  half  an  hour's 
walk  of  any  spot  upon  its  surface." 

But  how  is  it  possible  to  accomplish  this  ob 
ject,  if  all  peculiarly  religious  truth  is  first  to 
be  expunged  from  the  volumes  ?  How,  if  at 
the  door  of  the  school  district  library,  a  win 
nowing  Index  Expurgatorius  is  to  be  set  up, 
that  shall  drive  away  every  religious  volume, 
and  blot  out  from  other  volumes  any  pages 
that  may  possibly  be  tinged  with  a  religious 
bias? 


fpraira  anir  f  rartia  in  f  ttrasjltosnis  mis 


AT  tlie  session  of  the  National  Convention 
of  the  friends  of  public  education,  held  in 
Philadelphia  in  1850,  a  Report  was  presented 
on  the  subject  of  moral  and  religious  instruc 
tion  in  common  schools,  b}^  the  Committee 
appointed  for  this  purpose. 

They  remark  that  "  in  the  common  schools, 
which  are,  or  ought  to  be,  open  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  children  of  all  denominations, 
there  are  many  whose  religious  education  is 
neglected  by  their  parents,  and  who  will  grow 
up  in  vice  and  irreligion,  unless  they  receive 
it  from  the  common  school  teacher.  It  seems 
to  us  to  be  the  duty  of  the  State  to  provide 
for  the  education  of  all  the  children,  morally 

as  well  as  intellectually,   and  to  require  all 
25* 


294  OPINION  AND  PKACTICE 

teachers  of  youth  to  train  ihe  children  up  in 
the  knowledge  and  practice  of  the  principles 
of  virtue  and  piety." 

After  insisting  on  the  importance,  first  of  all, 
of  teaching  by  example,  they  say :  "  In  the  next 
place  the  Bible  should  be  introduced  and  read 
in  all  the  schools  in  our  land.  It  should  be 
read  as  a  devotional  exercise,  and  be  regarded 
by  teachers  and  scholars  as  the  text-book  of 
morals  and  religion.  The  children  should 
early  be  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  it 
was  written  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  that 
their  lives  should  be  regulated  by  its  precepts. 
They  should  be  taught  to  regard  it  as  the  man 
ual  of  piety,  justice,  veracity,  chastity,  tem 
perance,  benevolence,  and  of  all  excellent 
virtues.  They  should  look  upon  this  book  in 
connection  with  the  teachings  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  the  highest  tribunal  to  which  we 
can  appeal  for  the  decision  of  moral  questions, 
and  should  grow  up  with  the  feeling,  that  the 
plain  declarations  of  the  Bible  are  the  end  of 
all  debate.  The  teacher  should  refer  to  this 
book  with  reverence.  If  he  have  reasons  that 
are  clear  and  satisfactory  to  his  own  mind,  why 


IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  JERSEY.    295 

he  considers  the  Bible  the  oracle  of  divine 
truth,  he  may  from  time  to  time  communicate 
those  reasons  to  his  pupils,  if  he  judges  them 
to  be  such  as  they  can  comprehend. 

"  We  would  not  recommend  the  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  in  course,  but  that  the  teacher 
select  from  day  to  day  the  chapter  to  be  read. 
He  may  select  a  portion  that  commends  hon 
esty  or  veracity,  kindness  or  obedience,  the 
duty  of  prayer  or  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath, 
or  the  necessity  of  confessing  our  faults,  or  of 
repenting  of  our  sins.  He  may  tell  them  why 
he  selects  the  chapter  he  does,  and  may  add  a 
few  remarks  of  his  own,  or  mention  some  inci 
dent  that  will  illustrate  and  enforce  the  general 
sentiment.  It  may  be  well,  when  a  pupil  has 
violated  any  moral  principle,  to  read  to  the 
school  a  few  verses  from  the  Bible,  that  they 
may  see  how  such  conduct  is  regarded  by  this 
book." 

They  add  to  this  the  remark :  "  That  it  is  per 
fectly  easy  to  communicate  moral  and  relig 
ious  instruction  in  the  Common  Schools  with 
out  any  degree  of  sectarianism,  which  is 
always  to  be  carefully  avoided."  And  they 


296  OPINION  AND  PEACTICE 

close  their  precious  and  admirable  report  with 
the  following  important  arguments  and  sug 
gestions  : — 

"  We  believe  fully  in  the  necessity  of  moral 
and  religious  instruction,  and  if  the  school 
teacher  should  neglect  it  entirely,  that  very 
neglect  might  be  an  influence  on  the  minds  of 
many  children  against  religion.  If  the  teacher 
is  loved  and  respected  by  the  children,  and 
gives  them  no  moral  instruction,  they  may 
conclude  that  it  is  because  he  thinks  it  un 
necessary,  and  hence  they  may  conclude  that 
it  is  unnecessary.  We  recommend  the  Bible 
as  a  sacred  volume,  to  be  read  as  a  devotional 
exercise,  or  as  the  text-book  of  morals  and 
piety.  On  this  basis  let  him  teach  all  he  can, 
without  interfering  with  the  rights  of  the  dif 
ferent  denominations  of  which  the  school  is 
composed;  which  we  believe  opens  a  larger 
field  in  this  department  of  education  than  most 
teachers  cultivate." 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Public  Schools 
of  the  Fourth  Section  in  Philadelphia  recently 
adopted  certain  resolutions,  in  reference  to  the 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Eoman  Catholics 


IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  JERSEY.   297 

against   the   Public    School    System,    among 
which,  were  the  following : 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  ever  insist  on  the 
reading  of  the  Bible,  without  note  or  comment, 
in  our  public  schools ;  because,  1st,  we  believe 
it  to  be  the  Word  of  God ;  and,  2d,  because  we 
know  that  such  is  the  will  of  the  vast  majority 
of  the  commonwealth. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  look  on  the  effort  of  sec- 
tionists  to  divide  the  school  fund  as  an  insidious 
attempt  to  lay  the  axe  at  the  root  of  our  noble 
public  school  system,  the  benefits  of  which 
are  every  day  manifested  in  the  training  of  the 
youth. 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  use  every  means 
proper  for  Christians  and  citizens  to  employ  to 
maintain  our  present  school  system,  and  to  in 
sure  the  continuance  of  the  reading  of  God's 
holy  word  in  all  our  schools,  without  respect 
to  consequences,  political  or  otherwise,  and  we 
respectfully  call  on  the  members  of  the  legis 
lature  to  respect  the  rights  of  the  great  ma 
jority." 

Of  the  opinion  on  this  subject  in  New 
Jersey,  we  may  judge  something  from  the  fol- 


298  OPINION  AND  PEACTICE 

lowing  extract  from  a  report  by  Mr.  Halsey, 
of  the  Board  of  Examiners  for  the  County  of 
Middlesex,  presented  in  the  Eeport  of  the  State 
Superintendent  for  «the  year  1850.  Speaking 
of  the  importance  of  some  work  in  which  "  the 
best  modes  of  imparting  moral  and  religious 
instruction  in  the  district  school,  and  the  im 
portance  of  such  instruction  may  be  thoroughly 
discussed,  and  urged  upon  the  mind  and  heart 
of  the  State,"  he  remarks: 

"  What  God  has  united  man  may  not  sepa 
rate  without  peril.  The  children  of  our  schools 
carry  hearts  in  their  bosoms,  as  well  as  brains 
in  their  heads ;  now,  to  separate  the  head  from 
the  heart,  to  cultivate  the  one,  and  neglect  the 
other,  is  a  divorce  as  unnatural  and  unchristian 
as  perilous.  The  child  whose  hand  is  educated 
in  elegant  and  exact  penmanship  may  yet  try 
his  acquired  art  and  skill  at  counterfeiting  and 
forgery,  unless  his  conscience  is  duly  educated. 
The  child  whose  passions  are  left  untrained 
aright,  whose  will  is  unsubdued,  whose  lusts 
are  unchecked,  when  hereafter  crossed  or 
roused,  may  rise  upon  his  parent,  take  the  life 
of  a  magistrate,  sow  sedition  on  shipboard,  fire 


IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  JERSEY.     299 

a  court-house  or  a  jail,  a  dwelling  or  a  prison, 
or  revolutionize  his  country  to  effect  his  fell 
purpose  and  reek  revenge;  revenge  for  the 
robbery  of  an  education  without  religion,  a  heart 
virtually  plundered,  because  deprived  of  those  sal 
utary  restraints  his  fallei.  nature  imperatively 
needed  and  God  has  so  bounteously  provided. 
Nothing,  save  the  fear  of  God,  can  be  a  safe 
guard  against  the  terrific  powers  of  educated 
mind,  quickened  genius,  sharpened  wit,  and 
enlightened  talent,  to  which  it  is  the  aim  of 
our  school  system  to  give  birth  and  manhood. 
How  shall  this  mighty  responsibility  be  safely 
met,  unless  parents  and  teachers  be  made  to 
feel  it,  and  steadily  and  earnestly  aim  at  edu 
cating  the  heart  and  conscience  of  our  children, 
at  home  and  in  the  district  school?  How, 
unless  the  Bible  be  more  honored,  both  as  a 
classic  and  a  class  book,  and  its  pages  and  its 
truths  made  familiar  to  our  children  ?  How, 
unless  a  higher  and  holier  standard  be  dili 
gently  sought  for,  in  those  who  have  these 
young  hearts,  six  days  out  of  seven,  under 
their  powerful  example  and  tuition  ?" 


To  us,  as  well  as  to  our  fathers,  God  has 
spoken  :  "  Therefore  shall  ye  lay  up  these  my 
words  in  your  heart  and  in  your  soul,  and 
bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  your  hand,  that 
they  may  be  as  frontlets  between  your  eyes. 
And  ye  shall  teach  them  to  your  children, 
speaking  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine 
house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way, 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest 
up.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the 
door  posts  of  thine  house,  and  upon  thy  gates." 
Educated  as  the  Puritans  were  in  the  Scrip 
tures,  and  in  the  most  jealous  reverence  and 
love  for  them,  as  the  foundation  both  of  their 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  privileges  and  blessings, 
they  have  bequeathed  the  habit  of  a  religious 
education,  and  of  the  same  enshrinement  of 


CONCLUSION.  301 

the  Bible  in  the  heart,  to  all  their  descendants ; 
a  habit,  which  no  attempt  was  made  to  under 
mine,  in  any  part  of  the  country,  till  the  Bo 
rn  an  Catholics  began  the  outcry  against  the 
Bible  and  the  element  of  religion  in  our  public 
schools,  as  a  sectarian  thing.  But  the  good 
ancestral  primitive  habit  is  too  strong  for  this 
infusion  of  Papal  jealousy  against  the  Bible. 
The  decision  and  firmness  of  character,  which 
marked  our  Puritan  ancestry,  are  features  of 
New  England  still ;  and  New  England  schools 
and  institutions  have  got  their  roots  so  en 
twined  around  the  Scriptures,  and  imbedded 
in  them,  that  under  God's  blessing  all  the 
miners  and  sappers  of  Komanism  can  do  no 
thing  to  loosen  them. 

The  same  love  of  the  Bible,  and  sense  of 
our  dependence  upon  it,  are  increasing  else- 
w^here  ;  and  the  very  attack  and  insidious  ef 
fort  of  Eomanism  against  a  common  school 
education  with  the  Bible,  as  sectarian,  tends 
to  awaken  the  sensitiveness  and  alarm  of  the 
Christian  public  on  a  point  in  regard  to  which 
the  people  had  sunk  into  too  sluggish  a  se 
curity.  If  we  would  keep  our  civil  freedom, 
26 


302  CONCLUSION. 

we  must  educate  our  children  in  the  Scriptures. 
That  freedom  came  to  us  from  the  Bible  ;  by 
the  Bible  only  we  can  keep  it.  Like  the 
pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by  night, 
Divine  Truth  led  our  heroic  ancestors  through 
all  the  sufferings,  discipline,  and  struggles,  by 
which  they  established  our  liberties,  and  no 
thing  else  can  preserve  those  liberties,  or  the 
spirit  of  them  in  their  descendants.  We  must 
have  a  religious  education  ;  and  if  an  evil  in 
fluence  should  prevail  with  the  State  so  to 
change  the  system  to  which  we  have  been  ac 
customed  as  to  banish  the  Bible  and  religion 
from  it,  then  the  church  will  be  compelled  to 
take  it  up,  as  she  does  the  voluntary  support 
of  religious  worship.  In  reliance  on  Christ 
alone,  she  has  advanced  religion  more  than  all 
State  endowments  in  the  world  have  ever 
done.  In  reliance  on  Christ  alone,  if  compelled 
into  it,  she  is  able  to  do  the  same  with  educa 
tion.  She  rejoices  in  the  appropriations  of  the 
government  for  a  common  school  education ; 
but  if  the  condition  of  such  help  is  to  be  an 
oppressive  exclusion  of  the  Bible  and  relig 
ious  teachings,  she  abhors  the  treachery.  It 


CONCLUSION.  303 

would  be  the  death  warrant  of  freedom  and 
religion  to  put  her  hand  to  such  a  covenant. 
There  must  be  an  education  in  religion  and 
morality,  or  our  life  as  a  free  people  is  ended. 
It  is  claims  from  other  worlds,  according  to 
that  noble  sonnet  of  Wordsworth,  that  have  in 
spirited  our  star  of  liberty  to  rise,  and  other 
worlds  alone  can  keep  it  above  the  horizon. 
No  earthly  expediency,  or  political  manage 
ment,  truckling  to  the  cry  of  Sectarianism, 
can  save  us.  Our  freedom  is  the  product  of 
celestial  wisdom,  and  not  a  covenant  with  the 
powers  of  darkness,  nor  the  child  of  a  cun- 
ing  policy ;  and  celestial  wisdom  alone  can 
keep  it. 

"  "What  came  from  heaven  to  heaven  "by  nature  clings, 
And  if  dissevered  thence,  its  course  is  short." 


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